NorahMay
by Meg2793
Summary: Norah and her family come from a line of vampire hunters; only no one told her that. She moves to a new town and is put into a world that she has always unknowingly been apart of and learns to embrace it but not in a way her brothers would like. Damon/OC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Vampire Diaries.

It was pretty inconvenient to be perfectly honest. One minute I'm taking the subway home from school in good ol' NYC, and the next I'm packing my things to move to some remote town in Virginia that I've never heard of in my life. But, I guess that's just my brother for you, spontaneous.

Alistair was nineteen when our parents died, and according to my second eldest brother Sean, he didn't really take it that well. When I asked my brothers what happened to them they told me they died from some sort of animal attack, and immediately after, Alistair took my three other brothers and me and left without looking back. I was only four at the time, and I'm really not even really sure where we lived. Sometimes I get fleeting images, like watching parades on my father's shoulders or playing with my brothers in our backyard near the woods. I tried asking them what "home" was like but never really got a straight answer from them; it was a pretty touchy subject. Even my brother Sawyer whom I never thought had a serious bone in his body would put on his best stern face when approached about the subject, and say something like, "Mom and Dad loved you Norah-May". Yeah thanks, that really cleared things up.

We never stayed anywhere for long. In fact at four years, New York had been the longest and I really thought that maybe it had been for good. Not long after we arrived in Manhattan, Alistair met his wife, Amy, and since then they had two daughters, which I had to admit was nice after having grown up with four older brothers. But, as it turns out I was unsurprisingly wrong. So now here I am, thirteen years after my parents' deaths, driving down to Mystic Falls, Virginia in a minivan packed to the brim with various household items, as well as my two little nieces, Ashley and Sarah who are 3 years and 18 months old respectively in bumper to bumper traffic.

"Aunt Norahhh", Ashley wined loudly, which was doing nothing to help my rapidly growing head ache from the exhaust fumes outside. I took a deep breath before I answered.

"What is it sweetie", I asked in the nicest tone I could. "I gotta go potty reallllly bad!" Of course she did, was there ever a time that she didn't? Not that I usually minded, because for some reason I was always the one watching Ashley and Sarah and taking them wherever they needed to go so I was used to her extremely small, possibly tilted bladder. Sometimes I felt like their mother, considering their actual parents were constantly coming and going. I think they worked for some computer company, but I'm not entirely sure.

"I'm sorry Ash, but there is nowhere I can really take you right now." You never realise how hard it is to explain something to a three year-old until you actually have to do so on a daily basis. They think you could move the world with your big toe or something and you just choose not to because you want to be mean.

"No, I gotta go now! I'm gonna pee my pants!" That certainly got my attention. If she went, I would have to spend the next three hours in a car that smelt like urine. That just wasn't going to happen. I waited until there was a little bit of room to squeeze through in the lane next to me, and like a mad woman, I forced my way across, receiving many angry honks and vulgar gestures in the process. I successfully got off the road, and pulled into a nearby rest stop, and I'm almost positive that you have never seen someone run that fast into a building while holding a small child. Lucky for me there was a small unisex bathroom right in front of the building, where I was able to deposit Ashley quickly before she peed on my arms.

While I was waiting I figured it was probably a smart idea to get Sarah out of the car with her being one and a half and all. Thank God she couldn't talk yet, because if Alistair got word of this, I think he would decapitate me, if not something more gruesome for leaving his baby girl in the car by herself. I expected to find her crying from all of the commotion, but what I did not expect to find however, was a strange leather-clad man looking around my car.

"Hey! What are you doing", I yelled. He looked up surprised, and held my gaze for a short while. His strikingly blue eyes seemed to be studying me, like I was some alien creature that he's never seen before. The longer we stood there, the more I knew something wasn't right. My heart was beating twice as fast as normal, and the muscles in my legs seemed to have formed the slightest twitch. Every fibre of my body was telling me to run, that there was danger, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to grab the girls and leave. I broke his gaze in an attempt to clear my thoughts, and quickly realised that he still didn't answer my question.

"I asked you a question", I said forcefully. That seemed to bring him from his observations, and his quantitative look was replaced with an arrogant smirk. "A mini-van, really?" That was his answer! After all of that, he makes fun of my car? "Whew, call the press; we have a real Einstein over here!" Unfortunately, my response did nothing to dampen his spirits but it did warrant some stares from a couple of passers-by, mostly women, which only seemed to encourage his ego. Who did this guy think he was, Ben Barnes? Before he could open his mouth to respond, our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a small blonde child running up to us. "Oh shit", I mumbled under my breath. I forgot Ashley in the bathroom; I was really on a role today.

"You _left_ me in the potty!" If it was any time but now, I would have thought that her exasperated expression was the cutest thing, but right now I really did not have the patience. "I'm sorry honey, why don't you get in the car and we'll hit the road again, okay?" Sensing my bad mood like little kids do, she obediently climbed into the car, leaving me to deal with our mysterious stranger.

"Quite the attentive mother we are, huh", he said, his words dripping with sarcasm. "She's not my daughter", I snapped back a little too harshly. He wasn't the first one to make this mistake, but it always bothered me when people jumped to that conclusion. I mean, come on, couldn't they just be like "How nice of you to watch your little sisters!", or something equally sappy? Then I could say something like," Oh why thank-you ma'am, but these are my nieces." Do they have to just assume that at seventeen years old I'm already a mother of two?

"Ooh touchy", the man replied still holding that ungodly smirk in place. I needed to get out of there before the urge to slap that smile off of his face got any stronger, because I'm pretty sure he could snap me in half with his pinky finger if he really wanted to. Without another word I started walking around to the driver's seat of the van. However, this still didn't deter him. "Where are you headed to?" he asked before I closed the door. Doesn't this guy take a hint? Following my instincts, I decided against telling him the truth, so I said the first thing that popped into my head, "Kansas". Not even waiting for him to answer, I locked the car and sped out of the parking lot.


	2. Chapter 2

Fortunately, the girls fell asleep for the rest of the car ride, allowing me to have a semi-peaceful ride into Mystic Falls. It was having to leave the quiet confines of the car so abruptly that was my problem. Before my GPS could even say "You have reached your destination" in its boring, monotone voice, my brother Alistair stormed out of the house and yanked open the back door.

"Daddy?" Ashley asked sleepily. Alistair smiled in response and picked her and Sarah up out of the car. As he walked towards the house I heard him asking them something about if they had fun, but once they closed the door behind them, their talking was too muffled to make out. Sometimes I wondered if my brother was even aware of my existence, but I knew that was wrong, because when I did something wrong he could yell at me for weeks. With that thought I got out of the car figuring it was probably a good idea to unload the car.

When I walked in with my first armful of stuff, I almost dropped everything in amazement. Something about this house just looked so familiar. Even the smell of it gave me intense feelings of vertigo. I was pulled out of my musings by my brother Sean (Sawyer's twin), exiting one of the nearby rooms.

"Hey little sister, how was your trip?" Now I loved all of my brothers, really I did, but Sean was by far my favourite. He's funny, but serious when you needed him to be, and he seemed to genuinely care about what you had to say. With that in mind, I felt a little guilty not telling him about the man at the rest stop, but what was there to say? "It was good, nothing too spectacular happened. What about yours?" He smiled, "It was funny. Sawyer kept singing the whole way, so Owen dumped a bottle of orange pop all over him. I would keep away from those two if I were you; they're in full out war mode." I laughed, "Thanks for the heads up." Owen was born in between the twins and me at eighteen years old, but you would swear that he and Sawyer were actually twins. They may have had their discrepancies, but they practically had the same mind. They usually shared a room too, and I always wondered if it upset Sean that his twin didn't want to share with him, but I then realised that it probably made sleeping a bit more peaceful without him.

"So, where do I sleep, and who am I sharing with?" I asked once we stopped laughing. "Okay, brace yourself for this one. You finally get your own room!" I wasn't falling for that one, I'm lucky I get my own bed, not to mention my own room. By the way, Ashley kicks really hard. "Alright, what's the catch", I asked suspiciously. "Why Norah, I am hurt! Would you ever think that me, your loving brother would ever make a catch?" He feigned insult by putting his hand to his chest, and I tried my best to keep my fake glare intact. "Fine", he huffed playfully. "You get the basement. We already set up your bed, so get down there and get to sleep. You my very young sister have school tomorrow." Having said what he needed, he retreated into what I could only assume was his room and shut the door behind him. "We're only three years apart", I yelled back. He chuckled from behind the door, and then his lights were out.

As I walked down into the basement ready for some sleep myself, I realised it wasn't as bad as I thought. The floors were hardwood, and the walls were white. Plus, it _was_ the biggest room I ever had. Deciding that after my long drive I had the right to be lazy, I threw my stuff down in the corner and collapsed onto my bed, quickly falling into a deep restless sleep. I had what was probably my weirdest dream ever, and of course it involved the strange man at the gas station.

_I was walking in the forest bare-footed, the light coating of snow beneath my feet slowly numbing my toes. I felt nervous, like I did at the gas station, only this time it was one-hundred times worse. My heart was pumping so loud, I was positive that anyone within five miles must have heard it. A gust of wind flew by, and like it was carrying the sound, I heard screaming. I started to run, but instead of running away, I ran towards it; I couldn't stop myself. I arrived at a clearing and was finally able to come to a halt, but what I saw made me wish that I hadn't. The man from the rest stop was there; dressed in the same clothes as before, but this time he had a slightly different accessory, a dead girl._

_ I screamed, and he looked around the area like he couldn't see me, blood dripping from his chin, and sharp, white fangs protruding from his mouth. What was he doing to that girl? I started running again, this time in the much more sensible direction of away from him, but the only problem was that he was running too. 'He can't see me, but he can hear me', I thought in a panic. The man was abnormally fast, and caught up to me in seconds. Just as he was about to lunge, I woke up._

I woke up breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. I looked up at my alarm clock and the bright red numbers read 6:00. Oh my gosh. After a couple of minutes of catching my breath, I got up and headed to the shower.

Nobody was up when I walked upstairs to eat breakfast, but that was the way I liked it sometimes. With so many people living in one house, sometimes it was just nice to be alone with your thoughts. Of course my mind reverted back to my dream, but whose wouldn't? I wasn't sure what I should be more terrified about, that man, or how messed up I must be to imagine such a thing. Taking a shaky breath, I slowly finished off my cheerios and headed off to school.


	3. Chapter 3

I'll be the first one to admit that after living in Manhattan for so long, I was spoiled. I could wake up, get dressed, get on the subway, and be at school in a jiffy. Now I had to walk all the way from the edge of town to school in mid-October, and it was pretty darn cold. Needless to say, I was a Norah-sickle by the time I actually entered the main building to receive my schedule. I tried my best to form my frozen cheeks into a smile and walked up to the elderly woman sitting at the front desk.

"Hi, my name is Norah-May Samson. I'm here to get my schedule." The lady put on what I decided was definitely the fakest smile I had ever seen. "Oh of course dear! I'll get that right for you", she said perkily. She returned not a minute later with a manila envelope in her hand. "Here you go hun! You know, you look just like your mother. You have those same big brown doe eyes." That certainly left me dumfounded. How did she know my mother? No, she was probably thinking of someone else. Thinking she was just senile, I smiled and left to find my first class, but as the saying goes, "easier said than done". I took a right, then a left, then another right, and I was sufficiently lost.

I hopelessly looked around the area, when God sent me a miracle in the form of a three girls and a boy walking my way.

I think they saw how lost I was and decided to help, because they stopped in front of me, "hey you are the new girl, Norah right? My name is Elena, and these are my best friends Bonnie and Caroline," she said pointing to a brunette and blonde girl as she said their names. "And this is my boyfriend Stefan," she said pointing to the guy standing next to her. "You look lost; do you need help finding something?" "Um, hey, yea I can't find Mr. Masterson's English class. Can you point me in the right direction? I really don't want to do the whole 'new girl walked into class late on her first day' thing." They all laughed. "Yea sure, actually we have to get to class but my boyfriend Stefan has a free period now so he can walk you there and maybe show you around on the way. Isn't that right Stefan?" I looked at the guy I now know as Stefan, expecting to see annoyance at his girlfriend for suggesting he take me without asking him, but he was smiling. "Sure, it's no problem."

We said our goodbyes and I began to follow Stefan as he led me to class. He seemed nice enough, but I just couldn't shake off this uncomfortable feeling I had while walking next to him. It was probably just nerves. We walked in awkward silence until he broke it by asking, "So, what do you think of Mystic falls so far?" "Well I've only been here for a day, so I haven't been around town yet, but I have to say, I'm a little disappointed at the obvious misnomer. I mean why name it Mystic falls if there is no fall and this place isn't even mystic?"

He stopped and stared at me before bursting out laughing, with me joining right along. Once we calmed down, we continued walking again, until we stopped in front of an open door. "Well, here you are", Stefan said gesturing with his hands towards the classroom. "Thanks, I probably would have been wandering the halls for at least another hour if you didn't show me." "No problem", he responded, smiling. "Well, see you later", I said turning towards my class. Stefan nodded his head politely and proceeded to walk down the hallway away from my class, and strangely enough, my discomfort started to slowly dissipate the farther he got away from me. Well, here goes nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

After a long day of introductions, the last class of the day finally arrived and it couldn't come sooner. Everyone was nice and everything, but you'd think that being from Manhattan made me some kind of alien or something. Some blond girl named Caroline actually asked me if the tall buildings stopped me from properly tanning. But, other than that, the day didn't go too poorly, and I was hoping that history would follow the same pattern. Lucky for me, as soon as I walked in I spotted Stephan in the back. He smiled and waved me over, but before I could make a move, I was once again invited to the front of the class to introduce myself. Now at the beginning of the day this was fine, but after so many classes with basically all the same people in them, I'm pretty sure everyone knows me by now.

Everyone, this is Norah-May Samson. Is there anything you'd like to tell us about yourself Norah?" I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes. How cliché was this guy? "Not really", I replied while glancing over the uninterested faces around the room. "Well, then how about you sit next to…..Caroline!" No, anything but that. If I had to listen to one more "you know I'd really have thought that you'd have dressed more fashionably being from NYC and all," I was going to kill someone. Knowing I really couldn't refuse, I put on my best brave face and walked over to the vacant seat next to Caroline. Like I predicted, for almost the entire class she chattered on about the most useless of topics. From hair to make-up, to who were the hottest guys in school, I couldn't help but glue my eyes to the clock.

Almost there…just a little further…yes! The sound of that bell signaling the end of my Caroline-inflicted torture could not have sounded any sweeter if it came from heaven itself. Quickly getting up from my seat, I had to restrain myself from running right out of the classroom. As I was on my way outside, I met none other than Stefan Salvatore.

"Hey, how was your first day?" Once again, despite the genuine smile on his face, I was met with that uncomfortable feeling I had whenever he was around. I really had no reason for it, he has been nothing but nice to me the whole day. "I suppose it was as good as a first day could get."Just as I finished my sentence, Elena came walking over, waving to a group of girls behind her.

"Hey Stefan", she said while reaching on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek. Stefan put his arm around her waist in response, and Elena turned towards me. "Hey Norah, I was wondering if you wanted to come with us and some friends to The Grill later. It'd be really fun, and you'd get to meet some more people from around town." She sounded so enthusiastic about her plan; I didn't have the heart to tell her no. "Um, sure. What time?" She stopped to think for a moment. "Is around seven alright," she asked. "Yeah, that should be fine."

I turned around to start on my long trek home, when Elena called for me to wait. I looked at my watch, 2:30. I had to pick up Ashley and Sarah from day-care at 3:00; I had a little bit of time. "Here", she said handing me her phone. "Put your number in." I quickly typed in my cell phone number and turned to leave, but again I was stopped.

"You're not walking all the way home, are you? Why don't you let us drive you", Elena offered. As tempting as a warm car sounded I didn't think I could get away with not putting Ashley and Sarah in car seats. "Thank-you, but I'm picking my nieces up on my way home, and we wouldn't all fit in the car, but I'll see you later alright?" Elena nodded her head, "Alright, but be careful walking home. I want to see you at the grill later with everything intact." I smiled, and for the third time I turned around to leave; this time without any interruptions.

The day-care was closer to our house than it was to the school, so it was awhile before I arrived to sign the girls out. The parking lot was deserted when I got there, which caused me a little concern. I looked at my watch. _3:15_. I was so dead. The first thing I saw when approaching the small pink building was Ashley with her nose pressed up against the window. As soon as she caught sight of me, she came running to the door and into my arms. "Aunt Norah! I knew you'd come!" She hugged me tightly before I lowered her to the ground. Sitting across the room was a woman dressed in bright orange holding a sleeping Sarah.

"Ms. Samson, I believe we made ourselves quite clear when these girls were enrolled that this day-care closes promptly at three o'clock. She handed me Sarah while she was talking. "I'm sorry, I got held up at school. It won't happen again, I promise." Her pursed lips relaxed and she let out a breath. "See to it that it doesn't."

Sarah slept for the rest of the walk home, and Ashley was relatively quiet. She would most likely join her sister in a nap as soon as we got home, which was fine with me. It sure made babysitting a lot easier. When I opened the door to the house, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Sitting at the table was Owen, Sawyer, and Amy, who I normally didn't see home until at least five-thirty.

"What are you guys doing home", I asked curiously. Sawyer held up his arm which was now in a lime green cast. "Owen broke my arm", he replied with a slight smirk. Amy rolled her eyes. "I did not break your arm. It's not my fault you can't move quick enough", Owen said triumphantly. "When someone jumps on you from behind, how exactly are you supposed to see that coming, huh?" Before Sawyer could voice his defence, I interrupted with a question of my own, "Why exactly were you jumping on top of each other?" They both looked at each other and then at me, but the only answer I got was a shrug of their shoulders before they both went back to their bickering. On second thought, maybe I didn't want to know.

Amy, probably fed up after spending the whole day with them, got out of her seat and walked towards me. "I'll take them", she said while lifting Sarah out of my arms. Ashley was already clutching her opposite hand. "Thanks", I said. Amy turned to take her daughters upstairs. "Listen, Amy", I said, stopping her half way up the steps. "Yeah?" She looked back down at me. "Do you think that...? I mean I was wondering if maybe I could go out with some friends that I met at school. They wanted to meet at seven at the grill." She looked at me with a mischievous smile. "Alright, but if Alistair asks where you are, I have no idea." I grinned. Sometimes Amy was really awesome. "No problem."

As it turns out Alistair was no problem, because come seven o'clock he still wasn't home. Unfortunately, I still had three other brothers to deal with. I had one foot out the door, just one more step to freedom, when I heard the unwelcomed voice of Owen.

"Where do you think you're going?" I froze in my tracks. "Just out with some friends, bye!" I tried to rush out the door, but was quickly pulled back. "Do you remember Norah mentioning any new friends to us Sawyer?" Sawyer put his hand on his chin pretending to think. "Why Owen, I don't believe she did." They annoyed me to tears sometimes. "See Norah, neither of us remember, so you couldn't _possibly _be going out", he said dramatically. "That's right", Sawyer chimed in. I took a deep breath and told them the information they needed. "It's just this girl named Elena, and some of her friends. Nothing to call the press over. Now Owen, if you would please get out of my way, I would like to go meet them while I'm still young." The looked at each other, both with that sparkle in their eyes that always caused me trouble. Then, the most dreadful thing came out of Sawyer's mouth, "I call shot gun!" Both of them came running past me towards the car. With a roll of my eyes, I soon followed, knowing that this wasn't an argument I was going to win.

Elena and Stefan were waiting outside of The Grill when we pulled up to the entrance. "Thanks for the ride, bye guys!" After I closed my door behind me, Sawyer rolled down his window. "Listen Norah, you be careful in their, okay? We won't be far if you need anything." Considering his usual demeanour, this was kind of odd for him. "Of course, thanks." I gave him a reassuring smile and walked towards Elena and Stefan.

"Hey Norah, let's get inside, it's freezing!" Elena started walking in, and Stefan and I quickly followed. "So, this is the grill", she said while gesturing with her hands around the room. It was nice. Of course it was much smaller than the restaurants in Manhattan, but it had a homier feel to it. I looked towards Elena to tell her my observation, but soon realised that she was already at a table full of people, and she was waving me over to join them.

"Everyone, this is Norah." I gave a weak wave to the small crowd in front of me. "Norah, you remember Bonnie and Caroline." Why did Caroline have to be here? Luckily, the only seat available was on the end next to Elena, so I was saved from that misery.


	5. Chapter 5

All of them were very nice to me. Even Caroline had her moment when she offered to paint my "grungy-looking nails". At least I thought that was her being nice. All in all, the evening was going great, until the unthinkable happened. We were all laughing at something Bonnie had said, when in walks Mr. Creepy from the rest stop. Of course he walks right up to our table.

"Leave Damon", Elena said heatedly. Wait, she knew him? The creepy guy, or Damon, pointedly ignored her. "So Dorothy, how was Kansas", he asked turning towards me with that same arrogant smile that I remembered from the previous day. "Well you know, I got caught in a twister and some how ended up here. I'm still looking for my ruby red slippers if you happen to find them." He let out an amused laugh. "Why Stefan, how rude of you not to introduce me to your little friend", Damon said sarcastically turning away from me to Stefan who presently looked very angry. "Norah, this is my brother Damon who was just leaving." He never broke eye contact with Damon while introducing us. I got the impression that this was the entirely wrong thing to say, because it just seemed to encourage him. "Nah, I think I'll stay awhile." He then rudely squeezed his way onto the end of the booth next to me and started eating my sweet potato fries. Stefan abruptly stood from his seat. "Damon, you need to leave now." They locked eyes for a couple of seconds, and is if just realizing how serious he was, Damon climbed out of the booth and turned towards me once more. He took a deep breath in like he smelt something sweet in the air.

"Norah, why don't we take a walk outside", he said looking cockily over at Stefan. "I don't' think so", I replied. He sat back down and looked straight into my eyes. His eyes were dilated, and I was more scared than I thought I would be. I subconsciously shifted closer to Elena without breaking the eye contact. "Norah, you really want to go on a walk with me." I felt entranced for a moment, but quickly gathered my thoughts again. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I just told you no." He looked surprised at my answer, and his momentary weakness gave me the confidence to sit up a little straighter. He was about to respond, when he was interrupted by Caroline of all people, "Damon, just leave!" The people around us stopped to see what was going on, and an eerie silence filled the restaurant. Damon's eyes shifted back and forth, looking at the curious groups of people surrounding us. "Fine, I know when I'm not wanted. Goodbye Stefan, Elena, witch, bitch. I'll see you around Norah." I nodded my head and looked down at my plate.

When I looked up everyone was shamelessly staring at me, and Stefan asked, "Norah, how do you know Damon?" "I met him at a rest stop on my drive, I had no idea he was from around here. I thought he was just some pervert at a rest stop. I don't mean to be rude Stephan, but your brother is seriously creepy." He gave me a dry smile as if he was saying 'you don't even know the half of it.' After telling them more in depth about the rest stop and some comments from them about how horrible Damon is, the conversation eventually went to everyone's school day and the upcoming events around town. When it came to be 9:30, everyone decided to call it a night, so I made my way out of the building into crisp evening air.

Not wanting to bother my brothers, I decided to walk home. Besides, I only lived about 10 minutes away and the town is so small I already know my way around it. As I was walking out of The Grill, Elena and Stefan stopped me. "Hey, do you need a ride home? I don't like the idea of you walking alone in the dark; you never know what's out there," Stefan said ominously. I internally rolled my eyes. I mean come on; I used to walk the streets of Manhattan by myself at night all the time. But, I still put on my best polite smile and said, "thanks anyway, but I have always loved walking at night, and I'm not scared of 'the things that go bump in the night'. Thank you for inviting me though; I had a lot of fun. Oh, and thank you again for helping me find my way around school today." Stefan gave me a worried look. "It was no trouble, just be careful walking home." For such a small town, these people were really paranoid. "Will do, see you guys tomorrow."

About five minutes into my walk, I started to get an uneasy feeling, almost as if I was being followed or something. I kept checking over my shoulder to check, but was met with empty shadows cast by the dim street lights. I quickened my pace a little and tried to abate my unexpected fear by continuously checking over my shoulder, but nothing seemed to put my unease to rest.

I finally approach my house, slowing down my pace in the process. The light next to the front door is on, which means that one or more of my brothers are waiting up for me. Before I walked in, I sent Elena a text message saying I got home okay. It was only 9:45, so I was surprised when I walked in and saw my brothers and Amy all sitting in the den talking amongst themselves with what looked like worried expressions on their face. As soon as they heard the front door snap shut, they looked over and saw me. I could have sworn I saw relief enter everyone's face.

Alistair was the first to speak, and unsurprisingly it had a cold tone to it. "Where have you been? It's almost 10:00 and you have been gone for almost three hours. It shouldn't have taken you three hours to eat with friends. You shouldn't have even left without my permission. Why did you leave to begin with, are you that selfish that you can't be bothered with helping Amy with the girls. Seriously Norah, we haven't even been here two days and you are already putting friends before family. You can't even pick up my daughters on time. I had to get a call at work, telling me that no one has arrived to pick up Ashley and Sarah." He was standing now, towering over me, and staring me down.

No matter how many times Alistair yelled at me, I knew that I would never get used to it. Like many times before, all I could do was stare at him with my mouth agape. When I glanced over at the others, they looked just as shocked and a little bit appalled. They knew that I was always helping, and they also knew I never expect anything in return or complained about helping out.

I finally got my voice back and it was back with a vengeance. "It's really hard to believe you sometimes Alistair. I'm pretty sure I was home before my ten o'clock curfew and I may not have gotten your permission, but I deserved it. Have I ever once complained about helping out with the girls: dropping them off, picking them up, and watching them practically every day? No, because I don't mind doing it, but I go out for one night to try and have a semblance of a normal life, which might I add is pretty hard to do with you moving me around all the time, and you are telling me I'm selfish. I can't believe you. I'm sorry I was late to pick up the girls, but it was my first day at this school and I was a little overwhelmed. Plus, aren't you supposed to be my guardian. You're supposed to protect me, but all you seem to be interested in is using me as your nanny. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to my room before I say anything else I might regret, and I also have school in the morning so, goodnight."

With that, I left the room; tears filling my eyes. I went down to my room, and collapsed on the bed. I was so overwhelmed with anger, frustration, guilt, sadness, and exhaustion. Curiosity won, so I silently climbed the steps and sat by the slightly ajar door trying to hear the conversation occurring in the den.

"This girl has to be the most irresponsible person on this planet. She's asked to do one simple thing, but no, she has to go gallivanting off with her friends doing who knows what." I didn't need to look to see who said that. "Come on Al, you know that's not true. She watches t Ash and Sarah all the time. She's seventeen; it's good that she went out for a little while." I don't know what I would do without Sean always there to defend me. "How could you say that knowing what's out there! She could be dead tomorrow with your lack of discipline, or even worse, she'll become one of them!"

I quietly shut the door. I didn't need to hear any more of that. I haven't even been in this town for a week, and I'm already doing something wrong. Apparently, I'm even hanging out with drug dealers, and I'm soon to follow in their delinquent footsteps. I let out a defeated sigh, and headed down to my bed. I could try and try to defend myself, but deep down I know I'm fighting a losing battle.

Just as I was getting settled in my bed, I heard my door open and close. Thinking it was just Alistair coming to yell at me some more, I quickly made myself as still as a rock and attempted to steady my breathing. "You know, you're really horrible at this whole pretending to sleep thing. How about I go back upstairs and we'll try it again. Take two!" I let out a hearty laugh and turned over to see Sean walking up the stairs. He always knew how to get me smiling again. Hearing my laugh, he turned around and walked back over to my bed.

"Move over," he said while all but pushing me onto the floor. I moved onto the other side of my small, twin-sized bed and somehow we managed to fit. "Now, I know sometimes Alistair gets you riled up, and I'm not saying he's always right, but as your big brother I do need to say that he is only looking out for you." Really, that was how he was going to approach this? The frown returned to my face, and I let out something resembling a guffaw. "I think we both know that the only reason Alistair would be upset if something happened to me is that he would need to start paying a babysitter." Sean started to frown as well. "Come on Norah, you know that's not true." I chose not to respond, and turned my head away from him. I knew I was being a child, but at the moment I didn't really care.

"Hey look at me." I reluctantly turned my head back to look at him, albeit with a scowl. "Even if you don't think Alistair gives a damn about you, you at least have to know that the rest of us do. I'd be lost if something happened to you and you left me with those three knucklehead brothers of ours." I couldn't stay mad at him with a comment like that. I then did something that I probably hadn't done since I was ten, and it surprised the both of us, I hugged him. "You're really awesome sometimes." He let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I know. Now go to sleep." Without another word he climbed back up the stairs, leaving me to my dreams.


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the week went by quickly. I was invited out again on Thursday, but I figured I should probably give Alistair at least a week to cool off.

Late Saturday morning I decided to do some exploring. Some kids at school mentioned some trails that led through the woods, and as it just so happened, one of them began in my backyard. Having early childhood memories of playing in the woods, I was a little curious. Giving a quick yell to Amy that I was going out, because she was the only one that was home, I started on the trail.

The first thing that I noticed was that the woods were very thick. If it weren't for the bright rays of sunshine peeking through the small openings between the trees, I could easily see myself getting lost. Following the trail deeper and deeper, I was beginning to wonder what the big deal was about these woods. Sure they were pretty and all, but there wasn't anything significant about them. About fifteen minutes later, I was proven wrong.

Surrounding me was what appeared to be old ruins made of stone. On further investigation, one of them led down into a tunnel. _To go, or not to go_. Curiosity got the better of me; I decided to do some exploring.

The deeper I got, the more I realised that this was probably a horrible idea. It was dark down there, leaving me a perfectly open target for any willing homicidal killer. My heart was going a mile a minute, but having apparently no sense of self-preservation, I continued to walk.

The tunnel led to a room, but at this point, it was too dark to make out anything distinguishable. I stuck my head inside to look, too scared to actually walk into the darkness, and saw something moving in side. I backed away quickly, but not a second later my back hit into something and I stumbled forward.

"What are you doing here?" It took all of my self-control not to scream. I felt a hand tightly grasp my shoulder, but I was too terrified to turn around. As it turns out, I didn't even need to make the effort, because he turned me around himself. Damon; who else? Looking around decrepit buildings was probably in his "How to be a creep" handbook, right next to the section about ignoring other people's personal space.

I shook his hand off of my shoulder. "Was the sneaking up from behind really necessary?" He seemed to contemplate his answer before responding. "Yeah, I think it was. Now, is walking inside old rotting tombs a hobby of yours, or just something you do for fun every once and a while?" And there was that insufferable smirk again. He really needed to stop that. Partly annoyed because of his smarmy response, and partly embarrassed that he scared me, I turned around and made my way back outside.

"You really need to get out of this habit of walking away from me. Didn't your parents ever teach you to respect your elders?" I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep myself from laughing. "And what are you like twenty-two?" He started walking, and against my better judgment, I followed. "Looks can be deceiving Norah." I was still behind him, so I couldn't see his expression, but from the tone of his voice, he seemed kind of serious. "So what you're saying is that you're actually an eighty-year old man in a wheel chair, and these good looks are just an illusion." Wait, what did I just say? "Norah," he put his hand to his chest. "I never knew you felt this way."I rolled my eyes. "You think you're really great don't you," I said with a smirk of my own. "I think we both know it's true." I made a mental note to slam my head against a wall, because I was never going to live down calling him good looking.

We continued walking in silence until he stopped me and turned me towards him. "Norah, why aren't you scared to be alone with me in the woods? I'm a complete stranger to you, and I'm sure your new friends have told you about my 'horrible ways'." He rolled his eyes at the last part. I briefly wondered what he did that made everyone including his own brother hate him, but I decided to let it slide. Alistair may not be warning the town against me, but I could at least relate to a mutual dislike between siblings.

I tried to think of an answer that sounded semi-intelligent. "In all honesty, I have no idea. You're…different. I guess I'm just curious." Well, there went that plan. That was probably the most unintelligible thing that I ever said in my life. I suddenly found the dirt on the path to be the most interesting thing at the moment. I was so worried that he was going to twist my words into something like, "You're much more irresistible than the rest of the town," but he just nodded his head in understanding and continued to walk.

"So, what were those ruins anyway," I asked curiously. "Tsk Tsk, don't you know your history? That church was burned down with twenty-six civilians in it during the Civil War. You really shouldn't hang around there." That was interesting. "But, why do you hang around there? If it's dangerous for me, it's dangerous for you, and I highly doubt you come here in the name of history." I thought it was a valid question, but out of nowhere he started to laugh. "I think you're a slightly easier target than I am, what are you, like five feet tall?" He was off by two or three inches, but I thought it petty to correct him. "Whatever you say superman, just watch out for the kryptonite." He gave me a more genuine laugh this time, but it was cut short by my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. The caller i.d. read Elena.

"Who is it," Damon asked while looking down at my phone. "It's Elena." Before I could even open the phone, Damon snatched it from my hands and answered. "Hello Elena, what a pleasant surprise!" His tone was so fake it was almost sickening. "Where is Norah?" I heard Elena reply, obviously not amused. "She's around." His vague answer led to some yelling on Elena's side that I couldn't exactly make out. Strangely enough, the only thing I did make out was something about blood. Damon held the phone away from his ear, while Elena continued her rant. After a minute or two, the line went silent only to be replaced by a new voice; Stefan.

"What did you do to her Damon?" Not that I was about to involve myself in other people's family affairs, but in my personal opinion this was going a little far. Sure the guy was a conceited jerk, but it wasn't like he was an axe murderer or something. Well, at least to my knowledge.

"Oh relax, she's right next to me fully intact," Damon said with a hint of annoyance. "Let me talk to her," Stefan replied. "If you and your little girlfriend could calm down for more than a second, your precious friend will be safely delivered to Elena's house within the hour." Without another word Damon hung up and looked over at me. "Now, let's get moving."

After a couple more minutes of walking, we arrived in my backyard. "I just want to go in quickly and tell them where I'm going." I walked towards my back door and into the house, but when I turned around to talk to Damon, he was still waiting at the door. "You can come in," I said while walking back to the door to hold it open.

"Um, you can wait on the couch if you want, I'll be right down. Make yourself at home." After ensuring that he didn't need anything, I walked up the stair to tell Amy where I was going only to find the house completely empty. Not thinking twice about it, I left a note in Sean's room to tell him where I was, and hurried back down the stairs to meet Damon. Only, when I got down there, he was no longer on the couch.

"Damon," I yelled out. "Down here," I heard him yell back from downstairs. I walked down the stairs to my room and found him lounging on my bed, watching my television. "What exactly are you doing in my room…on my bed…watching my television?" I was more confused than annoyed. I didn't even hear him coming down, and the basement stairs were extremely noisy. "Making myself at home, like you told me to." I rolled my eyes. "It's an expression Damon." He still wasn't getting up, so I reached over to shut the television. "Can we just go to Elena's without any problems", I asked pleadingly. "Fine, take away my fun."


	7. Chapter 7

Before we even got to Elena's front porch, she and Stephan were storming out of the house. "Are you alright," she asked while placing her arms on my shoulders. "I'm fine," I answered, slightly annoyed at her unneeded concern. She took her hands off of my shoulders, sensing my negative attitude towards the subject.

To the right of Elena and me, Stephan was glaring at Damon who in return gave him his trademark smirk. I briefly wondered if Damon had ever seen Stefan smile, because the few times I had seen them together, his body language suggested nothing but an icy demeanour towards his older brother.

"I'll see you later Damon, alright?" They both looked at me as if I had interrupted some important conversation that they were having. Apparently they took their glaring very seriously.

Damon looked like he was about to leave, but he turned on his heels at the last second. "Hey Stefan, when you're warning Norah about me, don't forget to mention the part about me being devilishly handsome."

After Damon left, the three of us found ourselves in Elena's living room. She and Stefan were both exchanging serious glances towards each other, and all I could really do was sit there awkwardly. I felt like a little kid about to be scolded by their parents, but maybe this was worse. At least when I was in trouble at home, Alistair told me exactly what he was thinking. It was all a guessing game with these two.

"Look Norah," Stefan began. "I know that Damon can be, well, persuasive, but you really shouldn't be alone with him." Elena quickly jumped in, "With anyone you meet really, unless you're with someone you know, like me or Stefan, maybe your brothers." Who did they think they were? I already had four older brothers; the positions of worrier and protector have already been filled.

"I'm sorry, I know this is going to sound really unappreciative, but I don't need you telling me who to hang out with. I've known Damon for the same amount of time as I've known you guys. Thank-you for your concern, but I really need to make my own decisions." Elena let out a defeated sigh. "Alright that's fair, we don't really know each other, but can you at least promise that you will come to me if anything happens." I gave her a half smile. "Sure."

After our minor confrontation, Stefan left us to ourselves. We talked up in her room for hours, and it turned out that we had a lot in common, one thing being that we both lost our parents. But, as much as I enjoyed talking to her, there was still one question that I had been itching to ask the entire night.

"Hey Elena, what happened between Stefan and Damon?" Elena looked taken aback at my question, but she quickly recovered. "It's a long story," she replied looking a little uncomfortable. "So give me the condensed version." I knew I was being pushy, and maybe even overstepping a couple of boundaries, but a part of me needed to know. "Well, Damon really loved this girl, Katherine, but she loved Stefan. Stefan fell in love with her too, so she chose him. Damon never really forgave him for it." I took a moment to hate myself, because during this very serious moment about Damon's past, all I could think of was the saying, "bros before hoes".

"So does that's why Damon hates Stefan, but why does Stefan hate Damon," I asked trying to push the boundaries. "I think that's enough for one night." Elena seemed to be getting annoyed, so I dropped the subject.

I went home about a half an hour later to a house full of people. Ashley was running around screaming like a maniac, with Sarah stumbling behind her, Amy was cooking something, Sean and Alistair were picking at the food from behind her, and Sawyer seemed to be examining Owen, who had a nasty black eye.

"Owen, what happened?" I walked over to get a closer look. His eye was swollen shut, and the bright purple bruise extended all the way down to his chin. "Oh nothing big, I just got in this epic brawl with a couple of two-hundred pounders at a biker bar. Of course I whooped their asses!" He winced, closing his mouth in pain. "Oww." Sawyer rolled his eyes and slapped on the other side of his head. "It's tragic how much of a moron you are sometimes. Keep your mouth shut!"

Dinner was filled with imaginary stories about Owen's biker brawl, and Sarah throwing mashed potatoes in Alistair's hair. If he still wasn't sending me those stony glares, I probably would have laughed and gave her a pat on the back. If only I was still young enough to still get away with that. I imagine it's a good source of stress relief.


	8. Chapter 8

**Norah's POV**

I got a phone call around seven o'clock that night, and at first glance I didn't recognize the number, but upon further inspection I realised that there was a name on the screen: _Damon_. That's funny, I didn't remember giving him my phone number, and of course he wouldn't look through my phone after he answered it, right? Hmph. I gathered up all of my patience and finally answered his call.

"How did you get this number," I asked more curious than anything. I knew none of the people I gave it to would ever give it Damon. "Well, you know, you ask around and you can really get anything these days." His answer obviously had a double meaning, but I wasn't really sure what that second meaning was. I decided not to press it any further. "Well, what do you want anyway?" I closed up my history textbook, knowing that any hopes I had about concentrating were now thrown out the window.

"Come outside." I wanted to tell him no, but before I got the chance he hung up the phone. When I got upstairs, only Owen was still sitting at the kitchen table. He was looking right at me, but his eyes had this glazed over look. "Owen," I said tentatively. His eyes focused, and he glanced around the room for a second until he saw me. He put his hand up to his head. "Sorry Nor, I'm a little concussed." A little was definitely an understatement. "Is there anything I can get for you, like Advil, ice...?" He started leaning forward in his chair like he was going to fall over and I put my hand his shoulder to steady him. "...an ambulance?" He stood up, which I didn't think was such a good idea, but I didn't even bother voicing my opinion on the matter. That was of course until he started to fall over again. I caught him again. I was getting a little worried.

"Owen, I'm going to go upstairs and get Amy, alright?" My only answer was a soft moan, which I just assumed meant okay. Once I was reassured that he was not going to fall over in his chair, I ran upstairs to get Amy.

"Amy," I called out in the hallway. She walked out of Sarah's room with a worried look on her face. "What's the matter?" Sarah walked over to me from behind Amy's leg and I picked her up. "Owen is pretty concussed down there," I said pointing my thumb behind me. Without another word, Amy quickly went down the stairs and walked up to Owen who now had his head between his knees. I deposited Sarah back in her room, and followed after her.

"Owen?" I had never seen Amy look so worried. Owen let out something between a whimper and a moan, and when I thought things couldn't get any worse for him, my phone began to shrill loudly, which of course put Owen in even more pain. "Ahhh," Owen clutched his hands to his ears. Amy whirled around to face me with an annoyed expression that could almost match Alistair's.

"Why don't you go out for a little bit?" Since I had never seen Amy that angry, I didn't press any further. Plus, it did work out, because as far as I knew, Damon was still waiting outside and as it turns out I was right. When I stepped out of the house, Damon was parked a couple of houses down. I walked up to him in a huff.

"What could you possibly want from me?" He stood up from his car and gestured to the passenger door, "Why don't you come take a break for a while," he said with a mischievous grin. Well, that wasn't what I expected. "And do what exactly?" He started to open his door and get in. "Come to The Grill for a drink. Wind down a little bit." He closed his door behind him and sat in the driver's seat, expected me to get in as well. Foolishly, I did just that. Oh well, so much for not getting in the car with strange men.

"What took you so long anyway," he asked while I buckled my seatbelt. "My brother has a concussion," I answered while he started to drive down the block. "From what?" He seemed genuinely curious which I found a little odd. He doesn't even know my brother. "I don't know exactly. He made up some story about getting into a bar fight, but it was pretty obvious that that wasn't what happened." Up until now, I didn't even realise that he never told me the real story. "And that doesn't bother you, that he wouldn't tell you what really happened," Damon asked. Now that he brought it up it did bother me. but I wasn't about to tell him that. "My brothers come home hurt all the time with fantastical stories about how it happened. I've given up asking for the real story. Does your brother tell you everything that he does?" The car was silent a moment before he answered.

"No, but _my_ brother isn't the one who came home concussed. It doesn't bother you a little that your brothers don't tell you anything. I mean, do you even know what they do for a living?" And there was that double meaning again. I was starting to get annoyed, but I couldn't quite figure out if it was directed towards Damon or my brothers. However, before I could say anything else, we pulled up in front of The Grill.

The place was almost deserted when we walked in, which I suppose wasn't all that surprising with it being a Sunday night and all. Damon led us to the bar stools and as we sat down, the man behind the car walked over to us.

"What can I get you two?" He put down the glass he was cleaning and looked at us expectantly. "I will have a scotch, and this lovely lady will have the same." The bartender eyed me suspiciously. "Can I see some i.d.?" I glanced from side to side nervously, but Damon saved me the trouble of speaking. "You don't need to see any i.d." He locked eyes with Damon for a second, and then surprisingly agreed. "No, of course I don't. Two scotches coming right up." Damon had some serious persuasion skills.

Minutes later, a brown liquid was placed in front of me, and I eyed it hesitantly. I looked over at Damon, whose glass was already half empty. "Drink up," he said while proceeding to empty the rest of his glass. "I don't think so." I pushed the glass away and turned my chair to face to Damon. He took my glass and finished it himself. "You need to learn to have some fun."

"Maybe you just need to learn some responsibility. We still need to drive home; don't you think one of us should be sober?" He rolled his eyes. "You sound at least twenty years older than you should. What did they do to your youth in that house?" As much as I wanted to, I couldn't disagree with him, because I thought of that sometimes myself. I decided to change the subject.

"So did you just bring me out to insult my family every chance you get, or was there an actual purpose?" Damon finished off his third drink, threw some money on the counter, and got out of his chair. "I took you out to give you a little freedom. So what is something those brothers of yours never let you do?" I thought hard about it while we walked to the car. I did always want to see my parents' graves, but I didn't even know what state they were in, and that would be kind of morbid. Then I thought of the perfect thing.

"I want to buy an ice cream cone," I stated while Damon started the car. "That's what you want to do," he asked incredulously. I suppose it did sound kind of stupid saying it out loud, but that didn't change my mind. "One of the only vivid memories I have of my father is him taking me out to get a strawberry ice cream cone on my birthday. I don't think someone has taken me out to get ice cream since." An uncomfortable silence followed my explanation. For a second there, I forgot that I was talking to Damon. "Oh," he put his hand on the back of his neck in an awkward gesture. "Well, um sure." He was acting very out of character and I wondered if the subject of parent struck a chord with him. "Are your parents still living," I asked curiously. He sneered as if he was now annoyed by the topic. "No." I decided it was best to end the conversation.


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of the ride to the ice cream shop was extremely awkward. When we finally pulled into the parking lot, Damon shut the car, but didn't make a move to get out of the car. "How did your parents die anyway," he asked, still staring forward. "I don't really know exactly. I think my brother said something about an animal attack, but I was too young at the time to have any memory of it." Damon shook his head in disbelief. "They don't tell you anything do they?" Comments like these made me unsure whether or not I liked hanging around Damon. On one hand, he made me angry at my family, but on the other hand, he made some very good points. "No, I guess they don't."

Much like The Grill, the ice cream shop was empty except for the employee behind the counter. "Hi, how can I help you?" I looked at Damon, but he took a step back, signalling that he wasn't ordering anything. I stepped up to the counter. "Can I have a strawberry ice cream on a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles?" The woman nodded her head, and went in the back to get my ice cream. "I have to say, I've never had a girl ask me to take her out for ice cream," Damon said from behind me. "You didn't have to take me out," I responded defensively. "I'm not complaining, I'm just stating a fact." As soon as the lady came back with my ice cream, we headed back to the car, or at least that was my intention.

"You're not eating that in my car." I was going to go in anyway, but Damon locked the doors. I rolled my eyes. "You have to be kidding me." As I was finishing off the cone in the freezing cold, while Damon sat smugly in the warm car, I got a text on my phone. _Owen passed out. Taking him to hospital._

I throw my ice cream into the garbage that is conveniently right next to me, and jump in the car. "Damon, do you mind driving me to the hospital?" He puts the car in drive and makes a really sharp u-turn. "Why, what's going on? Is it your brother?" I nodded my head. "They said Owen passed out."

With Damon's extreme speeding, we managed to get to the hospital within minutes. As I got out of the car, I saw Damon had already gotten out and was waiting for me by the front of his car. "Thank you for driving me, but you don't have to come in. I'll see you around Damon." He gives me a look like I was crazy. "Knowing you, by the time you found his room, your brother would probably already be home and healed. I'll help you find your family, and then I'll be on my way." I wanted to argue with him, because I actually had a very good sense of direction, but Damon was being unseemingly nice to me, so I allowed him to walk me in.

When I walked up to the emergency room, I immediately saw my family nestled in a corner, whispering to each other and looking around the room until their eyes fell on Damon and me.

When we got closer, Alistair was the first to speak, but it wasn't towards me, it was towards Damon. "You have some nerve coming down here. Who do you think you are?" I was about to start arguing with Alistair, but Damon spoke before I could. He smirked like there was an inside joke I was missing, and said, "I was with Norah when she got that little text. Which I must say is a little distasteful don't you think; hearing that your brother is in the hospital through a text message. Plus, I couldn't miss my chance to see the family that's stirring so much trouble around my neck of the woods. And to answer your question, I think you know who I am." He got close to Alistair's face and whispered something like, "or rather what I am," but I'm sure I misheard that. Alistair backed away as if expecting an attack, which only confused me more, and believe me I was seriously confused at this point.

Damon turned toward me, well really Sean, seeing as I was hastily pushed behind him, but I managed to just peek my head over his broad shoulder. He winked at me and said, "See ya around Norah." At this point I was speechless, between the very confusing drama that just occurred and my brother being in god knows what condition in a hospital, my mind was seriously jumbled, but I did manage to get my thoughts together before he left the building. "Damon, wait!" I managed to escape my brother's firm grasp and run after Damon. He stopped just outside of the building and waited for me to catch up. "Thanks for driving me." Damon nodded his head and started to walk away, but I stopped him again. "I'm sorry. They shouldn't have talked to you like that, you didn't deserve it." He started to laugh, which seriously infuriated me. "There's a lot of things you don't understand in this world Norah, and that was definitely one of them." By that point I was surprised that steam didn't start to come out of my ears. "You know what Damon, I take back what I said; go to hell." I turned around in a rage, and walked back over to my family.

Alistair and the others all turned on me with facial expressions that read anger, anxiety, fear, exhaustion, and confusion. Alistair was about to say something to me when a doctor walked in. All the attention that was focused on me just moments ago went straight to the doctor.

"Are you the family of Owen Samson?" We all nodded, and Sawyer asked, "How is he? Is he alright? Can we see him?" I looked at the doctor eager to hear what he had to say and praying it was good news.

The doctor looked at each of us with a blank expression. 'They must have learned how to do that in medical school,' I thought. The doctor finally spoke after what felt like hours but was probably only seconds. "Your brother is awake now, but he is a bit incoherent due to the severe concussion he has. When he was brought in, as you know, he was heavily bleeding from his nose, which indicated to us the amount of pressure on his brain. We managed to alleviate some of it, but it will take some time for the swelling to go down completely. We'd like to keep him overnight for observation, and then if everything goes well, you can take him home in the morning.

The doctor continued after he saw we understood what was going on so far. "You were actually very lucky you brought him in when you did, if you waited any longer we could have seen permanent brain damage, or perhaps even death. You may see him now, and he may be resting when you go in which is okay as long as he is woken up every two hours. Now, I know you all want to go in and see him but I ask that only two of you go in at a time, and don't put any stress on him if he's awake and coherent enough to have a conversation with you. He needs rest and relaxation. If you have any questions feel free to have the nurse at the desk call me."Alistair shook the doctor's hand and thanked him.

When Alistair turned to me, his expression was not nearly as pleasant. He was voice was calm in that way that's just as bad as, if not worse. "Stay here and watch Ashley and Sarah, I'll deal with you later." Amy put the two sleeping girls in my arms, and followed Alistair down the hallway.

An hour past, and I was still in the waiting room. To my right, Sean was sitting patiently, and in front of me Sawyer was once again pacing back and forth. We were now the only people in the waiting room. It was two-thirty in the morning, and in a couple of hours I would have to go to school, but I didn't dare ask if I could go home and sleep.

Finally, after all that time waiting Alistair and Amy emerged from a room at the end of the hall and walked over to us. "Go on in you two," Alistair said while gesturing to Sean and Sawyer. Sawyer practically ran down the hall, but Sean stayed back. "I'm going to take everyone else home; I'll come back around eight to pick up the three of you." Sean nodded his head and slowly walked to Owen's room.


	10. Chapter 10

The car ride home was silent, and when we got there I sat at the kitchen table, waiting for the yelling and screaming but it never came. Alistair looked exhausted, and Amy stood behind him rubbing soothing circles on his back. "Norah, I don't even know what to say to you. You've done a lot of stupid things, but I think this tops the list. When that guy hurts you, don't expect me to give you any sympathy, because this is your warning; he will rip you to pieces." I understood that he was upset, and I had planned on giving him a little leeway, but this was taking it way too far. "You met him for two seconds, and you didn't even give him a chance. How could you possibly form that kind of opinion about him from that little amount of time?" Alistair took in a deep breath and let it out as if trying to stay calm. "When it is someone like him, you just know." He walked up the stairs immediately after, and Amy followed suit.

I felt like crying. Alistair always insulted me, I would be worried if he didn't, but ever since we came here, everything felt worse. Everyone was on edge; the slightest wrong move was treated as if it was going to end the world. Something about the place, or the people, or maybe even both, put so much stress on everybody in the house. And then there was Damon. I enjoyed being around him once I got over the majority of the uncomfortable feelings I felt around him, but that definitely didn't give him the right to say anything he pleased to me. The insulting part was that by the tone of his voice, I knew that he was intentionally trying to hurt me. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe after some sleep everything will seem a little better, but I doubt it.

When I woke up in the morning, which was only a couple of hours after I went to sleep, I enjoyed a couple minutes of bliss before yesterday's events came crashing down on me. I methodically got ready and headed up the stairs, praying that nobody was awake. I sighed in relief when I got my wish.

It took a couple of days before anyone in my family would communicate with me in any way. Even Sean was annoyed at me, which rarely ever happened. Needless to say, I actually looked forward to school where I would have actual contact with people. But on Thursday when I sat down with a bowl of rice krispies, and went to grab the newspaper, I noticed a note on top of it. _Wake up the girls and drop them off at the day-care_._ I'll pick them up._ I looked over at the clock that was now striking six o'clock. This would not be fun, but at least it was a start.

I tip-toed up the stairs and walked into Sarah's room first. Luck was with me, because I managed to get her dressed and put her on the couch downstairs without waking her up. Ashley would be more of a challenge.

When I stepped into Ashley's room, I had to suppress a laugh at the sight of her. She was curled up in a little ball with her but sticking up in the air, but her hair was the funniest part. I don't know what she did at night, but every morning it looked just like the hair from the bed head commercials before they used the product. I tentatively approached the bed.

"Ashley, it's time to get up." I shook her shoulder, but all I got was a bit of unintelligible mumbling. This girl was going to make some teenager. I tried a few more times to rouse her from her deep slumber, but nothing seemed to work. I looked at the clock to see that a half an hour had passed. At this rate I was definitely going to be late.

"That's it," I said aloud. I got on the other side of the bed, and in a good old-fashioned way ripped the covers and pillows off of the bed. She shot up in an instant. "Give me them back," she ordered. "No, we gotta get going, put this on." I threw her a pair of jeans and a pink shirt. She let the outfit fall to the floor and sat there with her arms folded. Not having the patience to deal with her further, I grabbed the cloths and put her over my shoulder. "Then you're going like this. They'll just have to dress you at day-care after you explain to them that you're not big enough to do it yourself yet." "No!" I knew that would get her. I put her down and she got herself dressed.

We managed to leave the house at six-forty-five, and with my fast-walking/jogging I managed to drop them off, and arrive at school only ten minutes late. If anyone at home was talking to me right now, I would so demand the car.

The worst part about walking in late was definitely the teachers. For some reason, they always felt the need to make some smart comment, like they thought that their class was the most important thing in the world. "How nice of you to join us Ms. Samson," Mr. Masterson said sarcastically. "Sorry." I handed him my late pass, and quickly walked to my seat. "Where were you? Some people around town said they saw you hanging around Damon Salvatore yesterday," Caroline whispered frantically. "I was taking my nieces to day-care," I answered, purposefully avoiding the second part of her statement. "And what about Damon?" Damn. "Yes, I was with him yesterday, happy?" She frowned. "Damon is bad news Norah." I was about to defend him, but then I remembered that I was still mad at him for the comments he made last night. "That's what everyone keeps telling me."

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I was constantly replaying everything that happened yesterday over and over in my head, making it hard to concentrate on anything. No one seemed to notice how dejected I feeling until Stefan tried to get my attention in history later that day.

"I heard about your brother, is everything okay," Stephan asked as we sat in our seats. I didn't feel like talking to him, but he was being polite, so I had to be as well. I couldn't really afford to have even more people not talking to me. "He's going to be fine." I pretended to be looking through my textbook in order to avoid further conversation, but it didn't deter him from pressing further. "And what about you, how are you doing?" I suddenly felt very exposed. I expected people to ask about my brother, but my feelings concerning the whole fiasco was not something I was mentally prepared to discuss. "What do you mean?" Stefan gave me a look of disbelief. "I'm sure your family didn't take very well to you spending the evening with Damon." How could he possibly know that? He and Damon didn't even talk. "How did you know I was with him last night," I asked with a little more bite than intended. I immediately started to apologise for my rude behaviour, but he stopped me before I could even take a breath. "It's okay, I understand."He ended the conversation without another word, and I decided that Stefan was alright.

As I had become accustomed to the week before, I walked out with Stefan to meet Elena, and after exchanging our goodbyes, we parted ways. Remembering the note saying that I didn't need to pick up the girls, I made the decision to take the back way through the woods. "Wait, Norah!" I heard footsteps running up to me from behind, and I slowed my pace so they could catch up. Unsurprisingly Stefan and Elena appeared on either side of me. "We'll walk you home." I laughed, they finally realised I was too stubborn to be persuaded out of my decisions.

It felt good to hang around with people my own age that had no idea about anything going on in my family. It made me momentarily forget how out casted I was right now at home. We were actually having a pretty good time, when all of a sudden Stefan came to a halt.

"Run back," Stefan stated in the most serious tone I've head out of him. Elena started to pull my arm to get me moving, but I refused to leave. I turned towards Stefan. "No, what are you talking about, what's wrong?" Then, two men came out from behind the trees in front of us. I froze. They were covered in blood and I was almost positive that it wasn't theirs.

The larger of the two laughed. "The Samsons' little sister roaming the woods unprotected; I would have given those guys more credit than this. But, I have no problem leaving out the added obstacle. This should be relatively easy." The guy lunged at me, or at least I thought it was a guy until I looked at his face. White fangs protruded from his blood-covered mouth, and his eyed were pure black with bright purple veins surrounding them. I let out an ear-piercing scream as he held me down with all his might and bit into my neck. A burning pain consumed my neck and I started to see my stars. What seemed like hours later, which probably wasn't even a minute, the "man" was pulled off of me. I heard voices from above me, but everything was hazy. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, and, managed to clear my vision to a point where I could make out Stefan and Elena hovering above me. I tried to get up, but my head felt like it was filled with bricks. "Easy there," Stefan said. I felt myself being lifted off the ground, but not a second later I fell victim to the blackness slowly engulfing my vision.


	11. Chapter 11

When I woke up I was still in Stefan's arms and we were walking though a doorway. "Where am I," I asked groggily. I squirmed in his arms, and he slowly lowered me to my feet. I swayed a little before grabbing on to the wall to steady myself. I saw a figure coming towards me, but everything was spinning so I couldn't make out the face. I felt hands slip around my waist, and I was lifted up once more. "What happened to her? Who did this?" Whoever was talking sounded very worried and frantic. When I listened further, my boggled mind managed to deduct that the owner of the concerned voice was Damon. I must be at his house. I opened my mouth to call his name, but once again I fainted.

"Norah," I heard someone say. "Norah, wake up," the same voice ordered. I opened my eyes and saw Damon. The day's events flooded my head. "Ugh." I lifted my hands and rested them on my throbbing head. I felt an arm slip around my shoulders and lift me up to a sitting position. I opened my eyes to see that I was leaning against Damon's chest. When my eyes met his face, I noticed his forehead creased in concern. "Are you alright," I asked. He let out a defeated laugh. "No, I don't think so." "What's the matter?" I still felt a bit disoriented, but I managed to make out what he was saying.

"Well you see there is this girl I know. Stunningly gorgeous, but unfortunately she has absolutely no sense in her brain, because after I warned her to stay out of the woods, she foolishly decided to do the opposite and take a leisurely stroll with my less awesome brother and his useless girlfriend. Then, like I predicted, she got attacked, and now I have her here in my bed in pain." I smiled sheepishly, realising he was talking about me.

I pushed myself out of his arms and slowly swung my legs to the edge of the bed. I held my aching head in my hands. "What attacked me? I feel like I was hit by a truck." Damon chuckled, "Not even close, I'm afraid it was much worse than that." His light attitude toward the situation was not helping my sour mood. As I turned my head to look at him, I felt a sharp pinch coming from my neck. I lifted my hand to touch the wound, but Damon swatted my hand away. "Don't touch that, it just stopped bleeding." As Damon inspected my neck to see if my "lack of sense" caused any further damage, the door opened to reveal Stefan and Elena, both with worried looks on their faces. I ignored them. "Damon, you're avoiding my question." Damon sighed. He looked over at the newest additions to the room. "What would it take to get some privacy around my own house?" Elena gave him a stony glare and didn't move, but Stefan lightly grasped her arm, urging her to get up. "I'll be right outside Damon. Don't do anything you'll regret." Damon's faced turned serious, and Stefan followed Elena out of the room.

As soon as he heard the click of the door closing, he began to speak. "You were attacked by a vampire." I let out a hearty laugh, but quickly stopped when I realised that he was being serious. "Excuse me," I asked incredulously. "You know, sharp fangs, suck blood, burn in the sun kind of thing," he said smugly. "Oh well when you put it that way it makes perfect sense." Damon got off the bed and walked over to the window. The sun was still dimly shining over the trees. "I'm telling the truth," he stated as if that was the only evidence I needed. "Prove it." He walked back over to me and started to gently unwrap the bandage from around my neck. I winced as the dried blood that was stuck to my skin was ripped off as well.

"Go look in the mirror," he ordered, pointing to the mirror in the corner of the room. I walked over, my eyes rolling in disbelief. What I saw when I got there however stole my breath away. Gracing my neck were two bright red bite marks. As I looked at them, I went over in my head what kind of animal could possibly make these marks, but I couldn't think of anything. "Why did they did attack me," I asked tentatively. "Oh so you believe me now," he asked back. "No, I mean yes, I mean, I don't know." I let out a defeated sigh. "Let's just say I do believe you for a second, why would two vampires attack me?" He laughed. "Well, here comes the real kicker. The people responsible for your current distress are your brothers. Oh, and your brother's wife." This was getting way to bizarre. "What do you mean, my brothers and Amy?" Damon moaned as if it was a bother to explain any further. "They're vampire hunters if you must know." What? I tried to wrap my head around the idea, but I just couldn't do it. Damon continued talking, interrupting my thoughts.

"Come on, it makes perfect sense. They're gone all the time, and then they come back hurt and don't tell you anything about it. Put the pieces together sweetheart, their hunters." I had enough of this. I pushed myself up of the bed and attempted to rush out of the room, but when I got to the door, Damon was already there. I gulped. "You're one too, aren't you?" He nodded his head, "Yep." I looked down at the floor, unable to make eye contact with him. "And Stefan?" He nodded his head again, "Uhuh." Damon moved away from the door and as soon as I blinked he was back on the bed. I took my chance and ran out the door. Elena caught me on the way out. "Stop," she said, grabbing my wrist. Damon was now at the entrance to his door, and all four of us walked back in.

I sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room. "What are you going to do to me," I asked nervously. Stefan stepped closer to me and gave me a warm smile. "No one here is going to hurt you Norah; we're only trying to help." I believed Stefan. He was nothing but nice to me since the day I met him, and I had no reason not to trust him. Plus, I was nearly positive that it was him who pulled the other vampire off of me.

I looked up at Damon. "You said that my brothers were hunters, but what does that have to do with those vampires attacking me?" Stefan stepped in to answer again. "We can sense hunters. They're something different about your scent that draws us to your location; just like you can sense us." I thought back to the feelings I got when I first met Damon and then Stefan. "But, I don't get those feelings anymore, and I had no idea that the ones that attacked me were anywhere near." Stefan paused for a moment and Damon came back into the conversation again. "You've gotten used to us. Most of the time, if a hunter spends too much time with vampires; they start to lose some of their instincts."

I took a couple of minutes to absorb everything that I just heard. "So let me get this straight; you two are vampires, and my brothers are hunters, and just a couple of hours ago I was attacked by other vampires who want to kill me?" Damon sat back on his bed and stretched his arms up in a lounging position. "Yep, that's about it." Stefan glared at him. "We're not going to let anything happen to you Norah, but there is one thing you have to do for us." I looked at him expectantly, "What's that," I asked with a questioning face. "You can't tell anybody." I reassured him that I wouldn't tell a soul. Everyone would think I was crazy anyway.

Damon drove me home at around ten o'clock that night to an empty house. When I thought about why the house would be empty, I realised that Owen was finally coming home after spending some extra time in the hospital due to some minor complications with his concussion. They must have all went to pick him up. I slowly got out of the car and leaned against the passenger door while the dark spots disappeared from my vision. I was told that I lost a lot of blood, and it would take time for me to fully recuperate. I felt and arm on my shoulder as I opened my eyes.

"Let me walk you in. As soon as you get settled, I'll leave," Damon said while lowering his hand to the small of my back to guide me up the steps. I knew by the tone of his voice that this wasn't something to argue over. He had his mind set.

I tried to unlock the door three times before Damon grabbed snatched the keys from my shaking hands. As he successfully opened the door, I made a mental note that if this was what blood loss felt like, I would never donate blood.

I managed to make it down to my bedroom after only stumbling twice, but when I got there I felt unsettled. "Damon," I said, surprising myself by how vulnerable I sounded. He turned to face me, and for a fleeting second I thought I saw a touch of concern in his eyes. "Do you think you could stay here until you hear someone else coming home?" He made a gesture for me to move over, and he sat on the bed next to me. "You don't need to worry about them coming here. A vampire needs to be invited in, and I'm positive that I'm the only one of my kind that has ever been invited into this household." I turned my head to look away from. "You can leave if you want," I said, probably sounding pathetic. "No, I think I'll stay."


	12. Chapter 12

When I woke up the next morning, as was expected, Damon was gone, and it wasn't until weeks later that I saw him again. I wondered if maybe he was avoiding me, that maybe I said something to offend him, but when I voiced my concerns to Stefan, he laughed it off and told me that there was no need to worry about Damon of all people.

Now that I knew all of the major secrets of the town, it was a lot easier to have conversations with some of the others. For example, not a week later I learned that Bonnie came from a long line of witches, and she was on her way to becoming pretty powerful herself. I wanted to tell her about my family, but I couldn't bring myself to start the conversation. After all, my brothers were the ones who did the hunting, and with the way my instincts were rapidly deteriorating, I would never join them. It just didn't seem like my secret to tell.

A little over two weeks to the day of my attack, I found myself walking to the day-care to pick up Ashley and Sarah. Slowly but surely, Alistair was starting to trust me again, which I was sure had everything to do with him not hearing anything around town about me hanging around Damon. But that thought was discarded as soon as it came up, because as I walked out of the building with my nieces, who else do I see but that very same man.

"Well look who decided to grace me with his presence. What, after you tell me what you are I'm not of any interest to you anymore?" I kept walking and urged Ashley to follow behind me, but Damon snatched her up into his arms before she got the chance. "Hi," Ashley exclaimed perkily. Damon ignored her. "Well, now that I have your attention." I stopped him midsentence. "Kidnapping my niece; that's your way of getting my attention?" He put her down, but Ashley kept a firm grip on his hand. It looked like she was trying to swing arms with him, but he kept his arm firmly in place. I stopped myself from laughing at the sight of it. "That's being a little melodramatic, don't you think?" Ashley stopped trying to swing his arm, and settled with just jumping up and down while still holding onto his hand. We fed that girl way too much sugar. I pulled my attention back up to Damon.

"Call it what you will, but you can't just spring something like what you told me and then just leave me to deal with it." He glanced down at Ashley, clearly annoyed, and then looked back to my face. "Sure I can, but if you would just listen to me for a second, then you would already know that I did a little research on your family. If you can get over your petty little grudge against me, then I can tell you what I found." I felt a little guilty for snapping at him, but enough to apologise.

"You can't come back to the house," I stated. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I figured." I briefly scoured my mind for a possible plan. "I have to watch these two until five, and then I can come over your house." He pulled his hand away from a disappointed Ashley. "That'll be fine." I watched him get into his car, and I started to walk home with a very talkative Ashley.

"Who was that," she asked while skipping next to me. I thought carefully into my answer. I needed to tell her something that would make her uninterested enough that she wouldn't tell Alistair.

"Remember that really nice girl you met last week?" She nodded her head. "Well that was her younger brother, Jeremy." She stopped skipping and tilted her head to the side. "Oh." Her focus was quickly shifted to a robin flying onto a tree on someone's front lawn, and I knew I was safe. Now I just had to make sure that she never met the actual Jeremy.


	13. Chapter 13

Not wanting to waste a moment, as soon as we walked into the house I got the girls situated and started making dinner. The more I thought about the events that just occurred, the more I regretted not going with Damon then and there, because now I couldn't concentrate on anything. I didn't even realise that Ashley had gone up into Owen's room until I heard a loud bang. He was much better after two weeks of recuperation, but loud noises still didn't sit well with him.

When I went upstairs to investigate, I found quite the scene. Owen was standing outside of the room, obviously locked out, and the mysterious banging was coming from inside, presumably from Ashley. How he was bested by a three year-old, I'll never really know. He turned to me as I walked up.

"Can you get her to open it?" As he looked over at me, my eyes quickly found the floor. Ever since learning what my family really did all day, it felt awkward to talk to them. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife and I'm sure they noticed, but no one said anything so I wasn't about to bring it up.

"Yeah, sure." I walked up to the door and softly knocked. "Ashley?" The banging stopped, so I continued to speak. "I have a problem, and I was hoping that maybe you could help, because you see I have this whole tub of ice cream downstairs that I bought for after dinner, but no one else likes chocolate-flavoured, so I have no one to share it with. Do you know anybody that could help?" The door suddenly burst open, and out comes Ashley. I caught her by the shoulders as she tried to run past me and put on a serious face. "Don't you ever do that again, okay? Or next time we'll just wait for your father to break down the door and he won't give you ice cream." She looked up at me with trembling lips, not used to me putting my foot down. This is where I would make a horrible parent, because I just couldn't stand her crying. In order to put a smile back on her face, I tickled her stomach, making her giggle and roll on the floor. "Okay, okay. I won't do it again," she said through her gasps of breath. I weakened my hold on her and she pushed herself up. "I love you," she exclaimed while wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back. "I love you too sweetheart." She let go of me after a couple of seconds and walked into her own room.

"I don't know how you do that," Owen stated, obviously trying to start a conversation. I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess I just know how she works." I turned to go back downstairs to finish cooking, but he kept talking. "You've been really quiet lately, is everything okay?" I seriously thought about just telling him everything I found out and call them all liars, but I decided to keep quiet. "Yeah, I guess I've just been busy with school and everything," I said, sounding unconvincing even to myself. "Well, don't work too hard." I gave him a weak smile and made my way down the stairs.

The chicken I was cooking was done at around four-thirty, so I lowered the setting on the oven so the chicken would stay warm without burning. While I waited for everyone to come home, I played an intense game of candyland with Ashley and Owen, and I say intense because she made up so many rules that for anyone to win besides her, you had to really jump through hoops. For example, I could not move from my spot until I got at least two cards, because I had two first names. Needless to say, by the time everyone started to trickle in for dinner, she had won around five times.

Besides Sarah's humming while she chewed her food, the dinner table was silent. I could have sworn that there was some sort of silent conversation happening, with all of the sideways glances being exchanged, but I figured I was just being paranoid. That was until they actually started to speak.

"So, Sean," Owen started. "Did you hear anything new around town about the animal attacks?" I had to try my very hardest not to roll my eyes. Vampires may not be the most light-hearted of topics, but they were treating me like a child. I put my fork down, too disgusted at them to eat. "Well now that you mention it," he began. I couldn't believe that I never picked up on this facade of theirs. My mind may not have jumped straight to bloodthirsty creatures of the night, but I must have realised at some point how fake they sounded.

My thoughts were interrupted when Owen continued. "I did get a chance to talk to the sheriff today, and she said that two weeks ago they were called into the woods because someone heard screaming. But strangely enough, when they got there the girl and the animal were gone." I knew they were talking about me, but I wondered if they knew they were talking about me. Maybe they knew all along, and they were just waiting for the opportune moment to probe me for information. Alright, now I was definitely being paranoid, but really, who knows what else they were keeping from me.

After that brief moment of excitement, the rest of dinner was filled with small talk, like getting a turkey for Thanksgiving next week, and who told Ashley she could have ice cream after dinner. Oops. Luckily, she was smart enough not to rat out her supplier. I felt extremely awkward sitting there listening to them talk. It was like I was an outsider looking in.

As soon as dinner was over, I made a beeline for the front door. "Where are you heading off to?" Damn it. I turned on my heels to face Amy. "I'm just heading over to Elena's. Do you mind?" Amy shook her head. "No, have fun." We stood there a couple of seconds, and I decided to press my luck. "Do you think I can sleep over?" Damon didn't even ask me that, but if he was going to give me good information, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be able to face my family without blowing a fuse as soon as I came home. "Alright, just be back by tomorrow night." After reassuring her that I would, I headed out the door and all but ran to Damon's house.

When I got there, before making any attempts to announce my presence, I stood in front of the house in awe due to the size and beauty of the mansion. Last time I was here, since I was unconscious and all, I didn't get the chance to really look at it. It was huge, and very elegant. I felt like I just walked back in time about one-hundred years onto some rich guy's property, when I realised I might have. Who knows how old the Salvatore brothers really are?

When I got over the initial amazement at the house's beauty, I walked up to the entrance and knocked on the door. When it opened, instead of Damon or Stefan like I was expecting, Elena appeared on the other side. It looks like I didn't lie to Amy after all. "Hey Norah, come on in." I did as she suggested and walked through the entryway, scanning my surroundings for Damon in the process. As if reading my mind, Elena stepped in with an explanation. "Damon and Stefan are in the kitchen." I gave her a confused look. "Why, I mean, do they really need to eat when, you know...?" She giggled at me. "I understand, it's kind of awkward to say it out loud. But, to you answer your question, no they don't need to eat human food, but they're able to. I think the food is mainly for our benefit anyway." I felt incredibly stupid not thinking about how we needed to eat. I followed Elena into the kitchen and my nose was immediately filled with the most delectable smell. I peered over the pot to see red sauce boiling away. Ragu was nothing compared to that smell.

"Well hello to you to Norah." I soon realised that next to me were Damon and Stefan, the two people responsible for the wonderful food. "Oh, hey guys." I turned away from them in embarrassment. "It smells really good," I added quickly. Damon smirked. "Of course it does, but don't worry, you're not the first girl to be lost in my greatness." I went to shove him, and of course he didn't budge, but fortunately I still got my satisfaction because Stefan pushed him instead. "How are you Norah," he asked politely. "I'm great, how about you," I responded while laughing at Damon's misfortune. Stefan had pushed him onto a cutting board that was covered in tomatoes, and they were now all over his pretty black shirt. He grumbled in annoyance, and in a blink of an eye he left the room. "I'm pretty great myself Norah," Stefan replied, wrapping his arms around Elena while they both laughed at his brother along with me. Damon returned seconds later.

Dinner with the three of them was a lot more comfortable than it was with my family. There weren't any awkward tension, or unspoken words, just four people having dinner. "That was so good," I said after finishing off my last piece of macaroni. "Thank-you," both brothers said at the same time. "Stefan here likes to take some credit, but I really do all of the work," Damon said while taking my plate from in front of me. Stefan shook his head, obviously knowing from experience that it wasn't worth the argument.

"Well are you ready to go," Damon asked, jingling car keys in his hand that I hadn't seen him pull out. "Go where? I thought you were going to tell me some stuff about my family?" Damon grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my seat. "Well I'm going to do you one better and show you." He started to push me along and even as I started to walk on my own, he still didn't remove his arm from around my shoulder. And strangely enough, I didn't try to move it either.

Not a moment after my door was closed, the car started to move. "Where are we going exactly anyway," I asked curiously. Damon glanced at me through his peripheral vision. "You'll see." About fifteen minutes later we pulled up to a small grave yard, which I'll admit kind of spooked me since it was so dark out. I started to think of possible reasons why he would take me to a cemetery of all places, when it hit me. "Damon is this...?" I couldn't finish the sentence. "Yep." He opened the door and got out of the car, and I quickly followed. Seconds later we were standing in front of them; two identical head stones. I silently read the one on the left, 'Here lays May Samson, loving mother and wife'. The other one said nearly the same, only it read John, 'father and husband.' These were my parents. The graves looked like they were recently visited, both adorned with fresh flowers, and free of the dirt and grime that would be expected after all these years. I suddenly felt betrayed. They had all come here without me.

"They didn't die from an animal attack, which I'm sure you already guessed," Damon said from behind me. "It was vampires; the same coven that your brothers have been tracking all these years. That was why you were attacked."

I took a moment to let it all sink in before turning to face Damon. "Why didn't they tell me," I asked, knowing that I was asking the wrong person. He shrugged his shoulders as I expected. "I don't know." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to process everything, when a felt a hand on the back of my shoulder. I looked up at Damon. "Why don't we go back to the house and we'll talk more?" I shook my head. "No. Can you give me a second alone? I'll be right there." He walked back to the car, but lent against the door instead of going in, his gaze still fixed on me. I turned back around to the grave and sat on my knees. I didn't really have anything to say. I was so young when it all happened; they were practically strangers to me. But, just sitting there gave me a sense of peace that I knew I couldn't find anywhere else. Just knowing their final resting place felt like a weight lifted off of my shoulders.

I stayed a couple of minutes longer, just sitting there thinking. I was grateful for Damon's newly found patience; he didn't say a word about wanting to leave, nor did he ask me if I was alright. He understood my need for silence. The few memories I had of my parents kept playing through my head, like a recording I couldn't stop. I wasn't sure I wanted it to.

Taking in a deep breath, I pushed myself off of the ground and mumbled a quick goodbye. I knew I was never going to come back here. Once was enough for a lifetime. I walked back to the car and got in without another word, and Damon followed my example.


	14. Chapter 14

We arrived back at Damon's house in silence, and when we walked in, I really had every intention of asking Elena if I could stay at her house, but of course both she and Stefan were already gone. I turned back to Damon to ask him if I could stay here, but judging by the look on his face and the hand he had placed behind is neck, which I had come to learn meant that he was uncomfortable; he was already planning on saying something.

"Look Norah, this isn't really something I normally do, but if you want to talk about your brothers or your parents or something..." I put a hand to my mouth to suppress a laugh that was threatening to escape. He seemed to be actually trying to show some compassion, and I didn't want to damage his ego, no matter how much of a toning down it may need. But it was funny how uncomfortable he looked. "Actually that's the last thing I want to talk about right now. I was just wondering if it would be alright if I stayed here tonight." Damon looked extremely relieved. "Sure, there's a decently comfortable couch in my room that I could let you use for a night I suppose," he said, fully restored to his conceited self. "I'm the lady, shouldn't I get the bed," I asked jokingly. "Sorry honey, I payed top dollar for that bed, and unless you're paying for it, I'm sleeping in it." I was going to point out that after my attack I woke up in his bed, but I decided that that would be pushing it. I wanted to keep the light-heartedness to the conversation.

"But, I can think of solution that would benefit us both," Damon said with a mischievous grin. "Oh, and what's that," I asked amusedly. "Lucky for us, this bed seems to be big enough for two." I walked right into that one. "In your dreams sweetheart," I responded, walking over to the couch. Damon flopped on the bed and turned the television on. "No, but definitely in yours."

Some programme about lions and their prey was playing on the channel he turned on, and his eyes glued on the television like it was the most interesting thing he ever saw. From the couch I only got a measly side angle of the screen, so I took a couple steps forward to see what the big deal was. "Just come and sit on the bed," Damon said, breaking his gaze from the television screen. "Unless my godliness will be to much of a distraction to you of course." I weighed my options in my head, ignoring his last comment. We were just watching television, what could possibly go wrong there? Barring the first time I met him, it's not like he's ever given me any reason not to trust him. "Fine," I replied. I tried to make it sound as defeated and uncomfortable as possible, but honestly that couldn't be farther from the truth. I walked over and sat on that bed without a hint of hesitation.

From my new seat, I could clearly see what was going on in the programme. A lioness had just pounced on a zebra and was viciously ripping apart its flesh. "Why are we watching this," I asked in bewilderment while searching for the remote to change the channel. He snatched it up before I could get the chance. "My house, my rules; besides, it's a perfectly natural thing. Lions eat zebras, it's not like you can make them do anything else for the sake of a disturbed audience." I let out a hearty laugh. "Do you relate to the lion?" I continued to laugh, causing him to glare at me. "Get off of my bed. You've lost your privilege." He gave me a light shove, enough for me to catch myself, but rough enough that I fell off of the side. As soon as I picked myself up, I got back on.

"Why do you need a bed anyway? Do you even sleep?" He let out a dramatic sigh. "And here comes the questions." I looked at him expectantly. "Well, do you?" He rolled his eyes. "Sleeping's the same as eating. I can do it if I want to, my body doesn't require it."

I reached my hand out and ran my fingers down his arm, the skin smooth beneath my fingers. "And I guess vampires don't burn in the sun." He shook his head. "No that one's true." I looked at him perplexedly. "Did I miss something? I've seen you out in the sun before, and I doubt SPF 80 would work on you."

"You'd be correct in assuming that. I can go in the sun because of this." He held up his finger to reveal a ring on his middle finger. I grabbed his hand to get a better look. "How does it work," I asked, still holding onto his hand. "It was enchanted by a witch."

"Like Bonnie Bennett?" It seemed unlikely that she would do anything for Damon. From what I could tell, her hatred ran pretty deep.

"No, like Emily Bennett," he responded while turning off the television in a huff. "Am I interrupting your show," I asked jokingly. He didn't respond. He took his hand from mine, and instead of pushing me off the bed again like I thought, he placed the same hand on my cheek. I took in a breath of air as he pushed my hair away from my face. "Why aren't you worried about all of this," he asked quietly. I subconsciously moved closer into his touch. "About all of what?" He looked at me frustrated, his hand moving down to trace the scars on my neck.

"You have a coven of vampires after you, and you don't even have your instincts to tell you if they're near." I pushed his hand away from me in annoyance. I didn't want the conversation to turn this serious. "And what exactly do you want me to do about that," I said getting off of the bed. Unfortunately, he followed. "Tell your brothers you know; make them train you," he said, staying surprisingly calm. "That would ruin everything," I yelled back. "All that would happen would be that they would get mad that I was still hanging around you after finding out what you are. They'd tell me it was my own fault, and leave me to deal with it. If you want them to know so badly, you tell them." I tried to walk out of the room, but Damon pulled me back.

"And again, you're back to walking away from me." No matter how much I wanted to be annoyed, I couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto my face. "I guess I do that a lot, don't I?" He pulled me back towards the bed, and we both sat down again. "You're running away from the wrong vampire, don't you think," he asked, smirking down at me. I was glad that he was dropping the conversation. I wasn't ready to talk about that yet.

I boldly reached with my fingers to lightly trace his lips. The smile slowly melted from his face, and he placed his hand over mine, gently bringing it down to my lap. Not a second later, his lips were on mine.

He pushed me down onto the bed, his hands roaming under my shirt as he continued to kiss me. His touch was different than anything I had ever experienced with a guy. It held so much more passion and feeling. I ran my fingers through his hair, and he responded by deepening the kiss. His lips moved down to my neck, and he started to lift up my shirt. As much as I wanted him to continue, I didn't want to do something I would regret. I wasn't a 'caught in the moment' kind of girl. As I learned in the past, sex complicates things.

"Damon, stop." He rolled off to the side with a frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry," I said while he sat up on the bed. "Yeah, whatever," he replied, not meeting my eyes. The emotion on his face was hard to read. He didn't look annoyed, and there was definitely a touch of disappointment, but there was something else that I just couldn't pick up on. "I'll leave if you want me to," I said, hoping that he would say no. I got up off of the bed and took a step toward the door when he didn't answer.

Before I could get any farther, Damon grabbed my arm and pulled me back onto the bed. "You don't have to leave. Just come back on the bed Virgin Mary and I'll try to keep my hands to my self," and when he said that I knew he was really saying that we were okay. "Fine, but just so you know, I tend to hog the covers." He smiled and pulled the covers over us both. "Fine, but I tend to spoon."

We settled into a peaceful silence, but I couldn't get my mind to rest. I tried to keep myself from tossing and turning like what normally happens when I'm restless, but I'm pretty sure I was failing miserably. "Are you planning on doing this all night," Damon asked, putting back on the light next to the bed. I guess I was right about the failing part. "I'm sorry, I just can't sleep," I said, blinking my eyes in order to adjust to the brightness. "No, really? I would have never guessed." I glared at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Just shut the light, I'll try not to move as much." I turned my back to him and squeezed my eyes shut, staying as stiff as a board. He turned off the light like I asked, but didn't follow my example. As soon as I felt him climb back into the bed, he wrapped his arms around me so my head was leaning against his chest. "What are you doing," I asked, averting my eyes to where I thought his head was in the pitch black room. "Shhh, just trust me." I did as he asked, and closed my eyes. From my position, I was able to feel the steady rise and fall of his chest as his breathed. The on-going pattern quickly lulled me into a deep, relaxing sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was still in Damon's arms. I didn't dream at all that night, making it the best sleep I had after arriving in Mystic Falls. I finally felt completely rested. I looked at the clock which read ten thirty, much later than I usually sleep. Now I just needed to eat breakfast before it was lunch time.

As soon as I tried to wriggle out of Damon's arms, his eyes fluttered open. "Good morning," I said, fully climbing off of the bed now that I was free of his grasp. "And where are you off to?" He rolled onto his side, making no attempt to get up, but every attempt to get me back in the bed. I successfully avoided his antics. "I'm raiding your pantry; do you have anything for breakfast down there?" He gave me a pointed look. "Do I look like I do the grocery shopping around here?" I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "I guess not."

I looked high and low when I got to the kitchen, and after ten minutes of searching I deduced that eggs were the only decent thing I was going to find, so I got out a frying pan and started cooking.

Right after I cracked the first egg, Stefan and Elena appeared, walking downstairs into the kitchen. They both looked at me confused. "What are you doing here," Elena asked. I was a little annoyed at her question. She didn't live there either, what right did she have asking me that? Before I could deliver any kind of backhanded response however, I felt Damon's hand wrap around my waist, and he kissed me on the cheek, his lips lingering for a couple of seconds afterwards. I didn't expect that after I shut him down last night. But then again, I did sleep the whole night in his arms, and I'm sure the display of affection was partly to piss his brother off. I tried not to think too much into it, and just enjoyed his embrace.

"Why good morning Elena, Stefan." Stefan was shooting daggers at him, but Damon's grin remained intact like always. An awkward silence ensued, both Elena and me looking back and forth at the two of them. "Hey Norah, will you come upstairs with me? There was something I wanted to show you," Elena said, neither brother seeming to pay attention. "Sure," I replied. "Just let me take the eggs off of the stove."

As soon as I finished scraping the burnt eggs off of the frying pan, I all but ran after Elena up the stairs to escape the awkwardness. When I got to the top step, I could have sworn I heard glass breaking from the floor below, which judging from the heatedness between the two, I wouldn't doubt it.


	15. Chapter 15

From the sounds that followed, it seemed as if a full out brawl had started downstairs, and I don't think I was the only one who was having trouble concentrating on anything else. After growing up with four older brothers and witnessing fights on many occasions, I couldn't help but wonder who was winning; and I would be lying if I said I didn't hope it was Damon.

"Are you worried about Stefan," I asked, trying to break the ice. "Because I don't think Damon would actually kill him." Elena gave me a half smile. "No, I don't think so either." We both looked back down again, unable to make eye contact. I was a little embarrassed at what she thought I did with Damon the night before. I may not have been totally innocent, but I was still a strong believer in keeping those kinds of things private.

"Norah I'm sorry, but I don't really know how else to say this; you're being incredibly stupid," she started. Well that was certainly bold. I tried to convince myself to listen to her whole argument before getting insulted. "I don't know what you two did last night..." I interrupted her mid-sentence, annoyed at what she was implying.

"You're right, you don't. You don't know anything that happened yesterday." Elena looked at me with sad eyes. "I'm not trying to insult you; I'm trying to protect you. As soon as you meet his purpose he has for you, Damon will be gone in a second. He doesn't care about anybody but himself. You haven't known him as long as I have, and definitely not as long as Stefan. Damon has done a lot of bad things and some are unforgiveable. He used and abused countless women and has killed a lot of people since becoming a vampire. He's going to hurt you if not physically then mentally, and you're just walking right into it. Do you really want to continue doing what you're doing with him?" She looked disgusted as she said it. I had no doubt that in her mind she thought she was doing good. In fact, I was sure that Damon had done exactly what she said he did at some point in his past. But, I also knew how much of an effect it had on someone when people judge you based on one person's opinion. I got that much from living with Alistair.

I guess I really knew my decision about Damon long before Elena asked me, but actually hearing the question and thinking about the answer made me realise it. "Elena, I'm sorry but I really don't care. I'm not making any plans to do anything with him, I promise I'm not, but I can't predict the future. I don't know what's in store for me or him." An unflattering frown formed on Elena's face. "Does he know that?" As selfish as it sounds, I hadn't really thought about that. Did he feel anything towards me? I'm sure that there was some sort of lust, and trust me, it's mutual, but I never considered what he might think of our situation. I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts from my head. This was none of her business. Damon and I were getting along just fine before she had to put those thoughts in my brain. She made me feel like I was on a soap opera, and I was not one for drama.

"Like you said, he probably doesn't care. He's selfish, remember?" I had this desire to defend him that seemed to come out of nowhere, but I still felt a little bad after saying that. She looked insulted at my burst of attitude. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you either, we're friends, but what happens between me and Damon is just that, between me and Damon."

Elena looked like she had something to add, but before she could Stefan burst into the room. "Come on Elena, I'll take you back home," he said hastily, completely ignoring my presence. I wondered what Damon said to him. Elena mumbled a quick goodbye, and followed Stefan out the door.

I stayed upstairs until I heard the front door slam, and then went downstairs to investigate. What I didn't expect to find however, was Damon drinking shots of whiskey. But I guess there isn't anything you can really expect with Damon.

"Is everything alright," I asked, approaching him slowly. "Sit down with me Norah," he said, patting the seat next to him. I hesitantly sat down, and a glass of my own was thrust into my hands. "Damon...," I started, intending on refusing the glass. He interrupted me, "Please, just drink it." He sounded angry, but I wasn't sure whether or not it was directed at me. Regardless, I figured any sort of mad vampire even if it wasn't directed at me wasn't a good thing.

I sloshed the liquid in the glass for a couple of seconds, the strong smell of alcohol coming off of it made me scrunch my nose in disgust. No one in my family drank; we didn't even keep the stuff in the house. I looked down at it one more time. Well, here it goes. I took a couple of sips, and I immediately started to cough, my throat burning as it went down. "That's disgusting," I exclaimed, my voice sounding hoarse. Damon started to laugh, and from the sound of it he was starting to feel the effects of the whiskey.

"It's better the second time," Damon said, grabbing the glass from my hand. I got up from my seat. "I need to go now. I promised I'd watch my nieces." I still had a couple hours until I needed to go home, but I had a feeling that he wasn't going to stop drinking any time soon and I didn't want to be around for that.

Damon got up from his seat as well. He had an intense look in his eye that had me fully expecting him to get angry at me; maybe lock me in the basement so I couldn't leave or something. Instead, he grabbed the sides of my face and kissed me. The alcohol on his breath was nearly unbearable, but I couldn't resist kissing him back. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and his hands lowered to my hips, but seconds later he broke off the passionate embrace.

His touch made me not want to leave, but judging by the way he refused to face me, I think he wanted me to. "Thanks for letting me stay last night," I said, trying to catch his attention. He nodded his head, still not facing me, making me think of what Elena warned me of last night. I quickly dismissed the thought. "Goodbye," I said turning slowly, making my way to the door. His only response was pouring another drink, so I grabbed my bag and stormed out.

The cloudy sky overhead was pouring out buckets full of rain, so heavy that it was heard to see two feet ahead. As I stepped out from the covering of the overhang, my clothes were instantly drenched. I inwardly chastised myself for my choice of footwear. The soaked cloth ballet flats were ripping as I walked; the material not being able to withstand the extreme weather. I was forced to take them off and walk bare-footed on the cold asphalt road.

Not ten minutes after beginning my trek, I was lost. The perpetual rainfall wasn't planning on lessening its intensity any time soon, making it impossible to see down the long road. Just as I was about to begrudgingly call one of my brothers; I saw headlights in the distance. My heart swelled with the hope that it was Damon, Elena, or even Caroline. I was desperate, but of course it wasn't any of them.

Pulling up next to me was an old, knackered-looking full size mini-van. As it stopped, I quickened my pace to just under a jog, my feet burning as they slammed against the hard ground. My hunter instincts may have been malfunctioning, but I didn't need them to sense that there was trouble. I started to run, but I wasn't fast enough.

One second I was hearing the rusty door open, and the next I was grabbed from behind, the man's finger nails breaking open my skin. I felt trickles of blood drip down my side as I was roughly turned around. As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew what I was facing.

The vampire threw me to the ground and kicked me hard in the ribs, causing an agonizing moan to escape my lips. He pulled me up by my throat before I could get the chance to recover from the blow. I gasped for air as his grip tightened around my neck. When I was on my feet he let go, his hand lingering on my scars; the same spot Damon's hands were just the night before. I wished he was here now.

Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I attempted to bolt in the opposite direction, albeit unsteadily. My attacker caught up to me easily and pushed me to the ground once more, my head smashing hard into the pavement. My vision turned hazy as he lowered himself down next to me, his black eyes hungrily staring at my bleeding body. I saw more of his coven approach from my side, but my double vision made it difficult to make out the exact amount.

"You keep awfully strange company for a hunter little girl," the man next to me said while leaning in closer. I felt his hot breath on my ear as he started to whisper. "You go home and tell the rest of your family that this is just the beginning." I let out a pained gasp as he bit down right below the very same ear. My hands instinctively flailed, trying to push him away from my torn body.

I felt his sharp fangs retract from my skin, the blood that came out with them mixing with the rain. I screamed out again as he bit above my left breast, this time feeling him suck out the blood. Tears flowed down my face, burning the cuts I received from falling on the road.

"Please," I yelled in pain. I tried pushing him away from me once more, only to have another vampire step on my arm. I heard a sickening crunch, and openly wept. "Please just stop!"I begging for my life, but it didn't faze them in the slightest.

I was finding it harder and harder to stay conscious as he slowly drained the life out of me. As he bit into a new spot, I closed my eyes, unable to fight it any longer.


	16. Chapter 16

**Damon POV**

I was glaring at Stefan with such intensity that I didn't even realise Norah had left the room, leaving me to deal with him on my own. Not that I was afraid of my brother in any way, shape or form, or that she could even do anything to stop either one of us if something went wrong, but oddly enough her presence calmed me to a point where I didn't want to kill him.

Taking me by surprise, I was all of a sudden thrown across the room and through the glass bookcase on the other side. I got to my feet quickly; ready to defend myself, when something occurred to me: Stefan wasn't supposed to be that strong. That's when it hit me and instead of anger I had I huge smirk on my face.

"Well well Stefan," I said smarmily. "Someone's been dappling with some human blood. You haven't taken any blood bags from the ice box, so where are you getting your supply? Elena? 'Innocent' people around town? You know how you get when you go off your 'diet'".

Stefan attempted to throw me again, but I easily evaded and pushed him against the wall, cracking it slightly in the process. It was his turn to smirk. "Is that what you do to Norah, feed off her a little at a time?" I eased my grip on him, and he got off of the wall. I can honestly say that what Stefan suggested was never my plan. When I first met her at that rest stop I had every intention of just killing her then and there, but I found that feeling fading more and more every time I saw her until it mysteriously left all together. Now, the thought of him even suggesting it pissed me off to no end. I caught him as he turned to leave and slammed him against the wall once again.

"Stefan, you may be stronger than you used to be, but don't assume that you are even remotely as strong as me. And next time you and your nosy little girlfriend feel the need to come defend Norah's virtue, don't." and with that I let him go with a final push.

Stefan didn't move after I let him go, staring at me with a bemused expression. "You have feelings for her," he stated simply. "You're angry because you wanted to kill her, but now you can't do it." He looked so smug, I had to restrain myself from giving him the satisfaction of me getting angry and hitting him.

I couldn't deny how much I enjoyed having Norah sleep in my arms the night before, how at ease I felt knowing she was safe, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "Can't you just let me have my fun," I asked, my voice laced with sarcasm. Stefan's jovial expression turned into a stony glare.

"Why do you do that?" I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. "You have someone who for some reason actually gives a damn about you, and you act like you don't even care. You just use her; like Katherine used you" I clenched my fists, trying to control my anger, but after that comment, it was impossible to do so any longer. I punched his face with such force that I knocked him to the floor, causing him to slide across the kitchen until his body was stopped by the cabinets. I walked over to him, fury coursing through my veins. I wanted to kill someone, anyone, just to release some of the rage.

"I think you may have your well thought out scenario a little backwards considering I have never taken a drop of Norah's blood. Can you say the same about sweet precious Elena?" Stefan stood up and leaned against the cabinet, a scowl adorning his face. "You know I need to be stronger to protect her."

"Maybe it's the vampire that's feeding off of her that she needs protection from." He ran towards me from his spot until we were face to face. "This conversation isn't about Elena and me," he said, a malicious smile forming on his face. "Oh yeah, and what's it about," I asked, curious about his change in attitude.

"When Norah's family tells her what she is and trains her to kill, you'll be dead within the week. Everything you may have with her will be gone as soon she realises what she was meant to do: kill vampires." As much as I hate to admit it, my brother knew just where to push.

That exact thought had crossed my mind after she so adamantly refused to tell her brothers about her attack. Maybe she was thinking the same thing. Maybe one day after she sleeps in my bed, I'll wake up to a stake over my heart. I shook the image from my head, suddenly infuriated. I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him through a table, the glass shattering as he made contact. "Get your girlfriend and leave now," I ordered, no longer able to damper my rage.

I let him go and surprisingly he did what I asked. I immediately poured myself a drink, having every intention of getting as drunk as I could in order to forget the image I created of Norah killing me. "Is everything alright," I heard a quiet voice ask from behind me. I couldn't turn around and look at her.

I offered her the seat next to me, looking down at my hands as I gave her a drink. If we were both drunk, maybe it would be enough for me to forget what Stefan said to me. Of course being as innocent as she was, she refused. "Please, just drink it," I said with more anger than intended. She did as she was told, but the look of fear on her face when I finally faced her stirred up an emotion I hadn't felt in a long time: guilt.

She coughed and sputtered as she swallowed the drink. I started to laugh as the amount of alcohol I had caught up to me. I offered her another glass, but she refused, jumping out of her seat. She pursed her lips, like she does when she's nervous. She was scared of me; she thought I was going to hurt her. Wanting desperately to erase the look from her face, I pulled her towards me and kissed her. Everything was starting to blur together as she bit down on my lip, kissing me back with equal intensity. But then Stefan's comments played in my head again and I pushed her away.

I turned around quickly, unable to look at her any longer. It was silent for a couple of drawn out seconds before she started to speak. "Thanks for letting me stay last night." Her voice sounded so vulnerable. All I could do was nod my head. "Goodbye." I didn't answer her. The door slammed, and I poured myself another drink, letting her leave.

I slammed the glass on the ground right after it was filled to the top and watched it shatter, the liquid staining the floor. Not that long ago the town was afraid of me killing them, and now my biggest fear was this small human girl wanting to kill me even though there was no proof that she ever would. That definitely wasn't anything like Katherine like Stefan had implied. Part of me wished I could treat the situation as Katherine would, but I dismissed that thought as soon as it came. I was too far in for that. I stopped drinking all together, too consumed in my thoughts to try and forget them.

I sat on the couch the whole night, wallowing in the thought that a girl besides Katherine could alter my life this much when the two of them were so different. Katherine was manipulative and self-serving. She didn't care if you lived or died, as long as your purpose was fulfilled and she got what she wanted. Norah was the exact opposite. She followed her family's commands to a t and never asked anybody for anything. She does it herself or she doesn't do it at all. Most of all what separates the two was that Norah was loyal; if only I knew where her loyalties laid. I cradled my head in my hands. It was pointless to compare the two; they had no similarities. I was pulled out of my silent reverie by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I answered without even looking to see who was calling.

"Damon," I heard Elena's voice on the other end. I let out an annoyed breath of air. "What, is it your turn to interrogate me," I asked annoyed. The line was silent for a moment before she answered. "Damon," she started again. "Norah just called me. She said she was in the woods just outside of town; she sounded like she was hurt pretty bad. I think you should go…" I didn't let her finish her sentence. Immediately I was running out the door and through the woods, looking for possible signs of her; trying to sense if any hunters were near. It was an odd feeling. One minute I couldn't even look at the girl, and the next I'm rushing out to save her, my mind filled with worry. Being a vampire wasn't supposed to be like that, but yet, there I was.

I heard her before I could feel her presence. She was moaning in pain, and when I sniffed the air, her blood was the only thing I could smell. I ran towards where it was coming from, anxious about how potent the smell was. There was going to be a lot of blood.

Minutes felt like hours as I ran through the woods, going through the possible scenarios of her condition. My mind kept going back to one in particular: she could be dying. She could be dead before I got there. I hoped to God that I was wrong, but what I saw when I found her made my unbeating heart drop to my stomach.


	17. Chapter 17

I was cold. That was the first thing I felt as I opened my eyes to the bright daylight. I squeezed my eyes shut again, unable to withstand the pain it caused my head.

I painfully lifted my arms and ran my fingers through my knotted hair, causing me to panic. I couldn't feel my left hand, and with my right I felt a long laceration that stretched from my right ear to the middle of my scalp. I opened one eye to asses the damage.

The first thing that I noticed was the dried up blood that was caked up under my nails, presumably from my head. But, upon further examination I realised that that was the least of my worries.

On my left arm I could see the white of my bone breaking through the skin, and my whole hand was purple. I tried to move it once more, in the hopes that my eyes were deceiving me, but to no avail.

Using only my right hand for support, I slowly pushed myself up from the dirt below me, yelling out in agony in the process. It felt like fire was coursing down my sides. My breathing started coming in gasps, causing further pain to my ribs. I stayed perfectly still as I tried to catch my breath.

I looked around at my surroundings. I was unsurprisingly in the woods, but in the far distance I could make out the outskirts of town. I needed to get up and walk. I leaned against a nearby tree, instantly regretting it when the pain from the bite marks down my shoulder reared its ugly head. "Ahhh," I yelled out to the empty clearing. I sat on the ground a couple of seconds before changing my position to try again.

I was able to get to my feet that time, an intense wave of nausea passing through my body as I did so. I was on my knees again in an instant, dry heaving as I fell face first to the ground. I rolled onto my slightly less painful right side and vomited.

Realising that I wasn't going to get anywhere in my condition, I fished around my jacket pockets until I found my cell phone. Despite our previous argument, my fingers dialled Elena's number. She picked up after two rings.

"Hello," she said with a slight attitude to her voice. "Elena," I whispered weakly into the phone. "Norah, are you alright? Tell me where you are." I started crying, the tremors that it caused leaving every part of my body with a shooting pain. "I'm somewhere in the woods, just outside of town." I sounded pathetic, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "Stay where you are, alright. It's going to be okay."

She hung up, and my phone dropped from my hand. I closed my eyes, waiting for her to come, and minutes later someone was lightly slapping my cheek; but the voice that followed was not Elena's. "Norah come on, let me see those eyes." It was Damon's. I blinked my eyes open and his faced bounced back and forth as I tried to focus. He gently put an arm around my back and eased me into a sitting position. He sat down and situated me between his legs. "Mhm," I cried out as he brushed my side in just the right place. "I'm sorry," he said solemnly.

He softly ran his fingers across my injured arm, being careful not to jostle it and leaned closer into me. "Norah, I need you to drink something, okay? It'll make all the pains go away." He sounded worried, making me panic more than I already was. Damon was never worried.

Interrupting my thoughts, something was pressed against my lips and a rustic-tasting liquid seeped into my mouth. My first instinct was to pull away, but it was pressed harder on my lips, forcing me to drink the mysterious liquid. I didn't realise until later that it was his blood.

I kept drinking until Damon stopped me, "That's enough Norah, we need to keep you roughed up enough to convince your brothers, plus if you keep going we'll both be too weak to go anywhere...," after that I couldn't hear what he was saying. It felt like something was pounding in my ears; like my heart had travelled up into my head.

I heard bits and pieces like 'high-and-mighty brother,' 'pick us up,' 'snap into place...heal properly.' When he said that, a hot pain travelled up my arm and to my chest. Pressure that I once felt in my arm slowly began to relieve itself, and the pain decreased to a throbbing after the initial scorch. While the pain and pressure subsided in my arm, as well as my ribs, the pain in my head only got worse.

It was like the migraine from hell, but luckily the pounding sound was slowly dissipating, allowing me to hear. I noticed that Damon was whispering soothing notions into my ear. I didn't even realise that I was yelling out in pain. "You're going to be okay Norah, just breathe through the pain, I know it hurts, but you will be fine in a little while, just keep taking deep breaths. I promise nothing else will happen to you."

If I didn't know any better I would have sworn Damon was comforting me without any of his usual sarcasm or bitterness in his voice, and I would have told him so if I didn't want him to continue. As he his last bit of words, suddenly I was reminded of everything that happened the day before. I started to panic. Where were they now? Were they out there looking for me? I started to hyperventilate.

"Damon, the coven, they attacked me, I couldn't fight them back, they started biting me all over, holding me to the ground, they were so strong, I couldn't fight back, couldn't get away, couldn't...," Damon's gentle hold on me got stronger, and he talked me down once more. "Shhh, everything's okay, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. It's all over." His words yet again so surprising, but were needed now more than ever.

My head was getting clearer by the minute. The injuries all over my body were healing which both confused and scared me. I may not have been fully conscious, but I knew the severity of my wounds. They shouldn't have gotten better that quickly. "Damon, what did you give me?" Seeing that I was okay, his concerned demeanour was reverted back to his usual self.

"I gave you some of my blood. Vampire blood can heal injuries when ingested. It was either that or let you die and I thought you would prefer the former. Don't worry you won't turn into a vampire unless you die with my blood still in your system. And to answer your next question, the blood will be out of your system in two days. I'll try and keep a closer eye on you during that time."

When he said 'home,' I suddenly realised how late it was, or early since as it seemed to be the next day. "Shit, what time is it?" I asked as I went to stand up, but Damon halted my movements. "Take it easy you just almost died, and don't you think this would be the perfect opportunity to actually tell your family that you know? Tell them what happened last night." Before he even finished talking, I was shaking my head no.

"I can't. Like I told you before, they'll just get angry that even after I found out I still continued to be around you and Stefan. They'll want to know why I didn't tell them about the two of you if I knew they were hunters. Why do you even want me to tell them, when they'll just start sharpening their stakes? Do you really want to fight them?"

"As fun as that sounds, no, but they'll help keep you safe." I turned my head slightly to get a better look at him, hissing at the soreness that radiated throughout my neck. His face turned serious.

My discomfort from the sudden pain brought us both back to the fact that we were sitting in the mud, which really wasn't all that comfortable, and it was starting to drizzle again as the clouds covered the sun. "Come on, let's get you home. I won't be able to help you in but I can get you close enough so that you'll only have to walk on your own for a little bit. I'll watch you get in safely," and with that he shifted me so that he could stand.

Once he was up, he walked to the side of me and put his hands under my knees and behind my back, lifting me up into his arms. I was going to protest but I didn't think I would be able to walk; and it felt nice being in his arms again. Something about it made me feel more secure. So I wrapped my better arm around his neck and enjoyed the comfort, because I knew that this kind and caring side of him wouldn't last very long.

We reached a house that was a couple away from mine in just about a half an hour. He walked slowly, trying not to cause me any further discomfort. As he put me down he stumbled, but caught himself quickly. "Are you alright," I asked, resting my hand on his arm. He nodded his head, looking down at me. "Yeah, I just need a little pick-me-up." I nodded my head in understanding.

Damon's cell phone broke the peaceful silence that fell between us. He answered it, obviously annoyed at the disturbance. "She'll be fine," he barked into the phone. "No, I can't bring her back to the house, she just nearly died. What happened to caring Stefan, can't you give the girl a break?" Stefan said something else, but Damon just rolled his eyes and hung up the phone.

"Alright, well, I'll be standing here until I see you get into your house safely then I'll head home once Stefan gets here to keep watch. I'll be back after I'm properly nourished and not covered in mud. If anything goes wrong call Stefan and he will get you out of there. Just don't step outside your house without letting one of us know. On second thought, just call me if things go wrong because Stefan's not entering the house."

"Okay, but how am I going to explain this," I said, pointing all around my body at the blood and bruises and marks that were slowly fading away. "They aren't just going to take 'I tripped on the way home' as an excuse."

"Well, I already gave you my thoughts so I don't know what to tell you." At that moment, I just wanted to cross my arms, pout, stomp my foot, and say, 'but it's not fair' like I had seen Ashley do so many times, but I didn't think he'd appreciate that. Instead I sighed and said, "I guess I'll see you later; time to face the yelling."

I turned to leave but Damon turned me back towards him and placed a light kiss on my lips. Before I could deepen it, his lips were gone. "Please do as I said. I really don't think I could take anymore blood loss to save you." I smiled for the first time tonight. That's what I loved about him most, his way of making serious things, light-hearted. I tried not to bother my aching head about how I just referred to love and Damon in the same sentence.

I went to leave once more, but thought the better of it. I turned around and kissed him with all I had, which probably wasn't much. He wrapped his arms around me and held me there even after our lips parted. "Thank-you," I said, lifting my head off of his chest to look at him. He tenderly ran his fingers down my face, but stayed silent. "Goodnight," I said, turning away from him. "Goodnight."

The walk to my house wasn't far, but with my sore ribs, slight head ache, and everything else aching as well, it felt like I was running a half-marathon. When I reached the front door, I turned around to where Damon was and gave him a half-smile before turning back around and opening the door to what I knew was going to be hell.


	18. Chapter 18

No one was in the kitchen or the living room when I walked through the door. The whole floor was dark, but I could see lights coming from upstairs. They didn't notice me come in, making me very tempted to just go down to my room and wait for them to find me. If I was lucky maybe all of this could wait until tomorrow when I was better rested. But, of course my conscious had to kick in. "Hello," I called out to the quiet house. My voice sounded raspy.

As soon as the word left my mouth I heard footsteps bounding down the stairs, revealing Sean moments later. "Thank-God." He walked over to me and enveloped me in his arms, his tight grip hurting my still sore body. When he stepped away from me he had tears in his eyes, making me feel guiltier than ever. I opened my mouth to apologise, even though there was nothing I could really do, but Sean interrupted me.

"I have to go call the others. They're all out looking for you, we were all so worried." He ran over to the phone and started dialling, mumbling things to the person on the other line. Suddenly overcome with dizziness, I made my way over to the couch and laid down. As much as Damon's blood made me feel a lot better, I knew I would still be feeling these injuries for a while. The hard cushions did little to ease my pain, but I couldn't resist how good it felt to lay down on something other than the ground.

No words were exchanged between Sean and me, filling the house with a comforting silence until the front door burst open. The light was turned on, and Alistair of all people came rushing over to me. I pushed myself up into a sitting position to make room.

He sat beside me, but remained silent. His face was filled with a sadness I'd never witnessed before; making me wonder how badly I really looked. I self-consciously wrapped my hands around myself and looked down at my lap. Alistair placed his hand under my chin, forcing me to look back up.

"You know, don't you?" A stray tear fell from his right eye. "What did they do to you?" He looked scared, making me realise something that never occurred to me: this is what happened with my parents. They went out and they never came back. I felt even guiltier than before, and saw that even though I would never admit it to him, Damon was right; I should have told them I knew.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. I thought about what the vampire told me to tell him and made the decision that I would never speak those words to anybody in this house. They didn't need the added worry. "Did they hurt you too bad," Owen asked from the corner. I shook my head. "No, I'll be alright," I said, leaving out the part about me drinking a vampire's blood to avoid the near death that the coven caused. Alistair nodded his head. "Good," he stated.

I unwrapped my hands from around my body, bringing attention to the faded bite marks on my chest. A collective gasp filled the room, but no one said anything. "They're not going to get to you again," Alistair said, similar to the words Damon had spoken to me not that long ago. "I hope not," I responded sombrely.

"You must be tired," Amy exclaimed from her seat next to her husband. Truthfully, I wasn't the least bit drowsy. Damon's blood still had my heart going a mile a minute, distinguishing any hopes of resting. "I'm fine," I responded.

"Well, I could use a little nap. Come on Alistair, why don't we go check on the girls and head to bed." Alistair compliantly got up and followed, still in a sort of stupor.

Judging from everybody's faces, none of them slept last night. "Come on honey, let's go down to your room," Sean said, ushering me to the basement door. I slowly lifted myself off of the couch, and followed him downstairs.

"I'm sorry." I stopped after taking the last step, and Sean turned around to face me, looking slightly annoyed. "Will you stop apologising?" I was taken aback by his harsh tone. "If we would have just told you instead of keeping these ridiculous secrets, you would have been prepared! This wouldn't have happened to you!" He was in hysterics now, falling apart before my eyes. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waste. "Please stop. I'm fine, I promise." He started to calm down. I'd never seen any of my brothers cry before in my life, and now it happened twice in one day. It was a scary thought.

We sat on my bed as Sean regained his composure. He wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands, making him look much younger than twenty-one. "Well, I'm gonna head up now. Holler if you need anything." He laid a kiss on my forehead and went back up the stairs.

I sat on my bed, staring up at the ceiling for hours. I tried and I tried, but I couldn't will my eyes to close. I decided to call Damon; he was outside of my house anyway. It barely rang once before he picked up. "Everything alright," he asked, obviously trying to keep the worry from his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine; just restless."

"Well, if only I could come in there and entertain you," he said smoothly. Choosing to ignore the meaning of his comment, I changed the subject. "They know," I stated simply. "I knew you'd cave," he answered cockily. "Oh yeah, and how'd you know that?"

"Because you know that I'm always right." I guffawed at his blatant love for himself. "Is that a proven fact," I challenged playfully. "Of course it is; I only provide you with the most reliable of information." I laughed, then remembering my hurt ribs. "Oooo, don't make me laugh," I said, wrapping a hand around my side. Neither of us spoke in the seconds following, and I heard some shuffling around from his end until he broke the silence. "How did they take it?" I thought about how to word their reactions.

"Well, I didn't exactly tell them, they just knew when they saw me," I started to explain. Damon interrupted me. "Yeah, well having your body covered in bite marks tends to draw attention," he said sarcastically. I didn't acknowledge his statement. "With all things considering they took it well." I didn't want to tell Damon exactly what happened, thinking it was an intrusion of my brothers' privacy. "I see," he exclaimed, his disbelief apparent in his voice.

"I guess I'll let you get back to...whatever it is you're doing out there." I heard him muffle a laugh. "What do you think I'm doing out here," he asked amusedly. "I don't know, terrorising the neighbours," I responded jokingly. "Go to bed Norah," he ordered, still with a playful tone. "Yeah, yeah..." We exchanged our goodbyes and I laid on my bed, readying myself for the long night ahead. Not that I remained laying down for long.

I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me. It may not have made sense before, but I now understood why Damon slept even though he didn't need to; staying awake was boring as hell. I watched TV, I read, I paced, I even alphabetized the book shelves, but nothing seemed to pass the time. When I looked at the clock it was still only three in the morning. I felt wired, like someone on a caffeine high. "Why me," I said dramatically as I sat down on the bed once more. Maybe I could wake up Sean. This would count as needing something, right? No, probably not.

At five o'clock I finally just resorted to starting breakfast. I couldn't reach my arms up to get the frying pan from the cabinet, so I wound up making the eggs and pancakes in a pot; which takes a long time by the way.

People started coming down around six thirty. By that time, the table was filled with assorted breakfast food; from eggs to pancakes to muffins, I even attempted those little crescent roll things. Needless to say, I went a little overboard. "What's the occasion," Owen asked as he plopped down into a seat. I shrugged my shoulders. "Just felt like it." I laughed inwardly; if only that were the reason.

It felt good to sit down with my family and actually be comfortable talking to them, but there was still one question that hung on my mind. "Alistair," I called across the table, trying to catch his attention. "What's up," he asked with a smile. I felt kind of bad ruining the mood. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

His expression changed into a worried and from what I could tell a sad expression. He didn't speak at first. The table got really quiet and I could feel the anxiety rolling off of everyone. Even Sarah and Ashley were quiet; I guess they could sense the serious mood. At this point, you could cut the tension with a butter knife.

"Norah, you don't understand. It's just that...and you were so young when mom and dad died. The timing was never good... gosh; it was easier with you not knowing... I just mean..." Truthfully that pissed me off to no end, but I sucked it up and let him finish what he was poorly trying to explain.

Alistair started babbling again. "You just got older and it just got harder to tell you...no sense stopping a good thing...you were doing so well with the girls...it was too dangerous for you to hunt while you weren't watching them, because then your scent would be just as strong as the rest of ours," and after he said that my chair was already knocked backwards, and I was standing with such a furious expression, that the girls looked a little bit scared.

"That's it isn't it? My only use in this family is to be a nanny to your daughters. You didn't tell me so you could save your own hide. It had nothing to do with my safety or needs, and don't you dare try to deny it!"

I ran to the door and opened it; I couldn't face them anymore. Before I could step foot out the door, someone grabbed my still sore arm and tried to pull me back. I was turned around quickly and when I looked up I saw it was Sean. I tried pushing away but he wouldn't budge.

"Sean, let me go, you and all the others are just as bad. You could have told me...could have convinced Alistair to tell me. Obviously you felt the same as him. How could I have been so stupid? Your only concern if I die is finding a cheap babysitter who doesn't ask questions. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going for a walk, and don't following me, I can take care of myself, no thanks to you. Don't wait up," and with that I pulled out of Sean's grasp, turned, and quickly walked out the door, slamming it shut on the way out.


	19. Chapter 19

I started running as soon as I made it to the street, not really sure of my destination; I just knew I had to get away, and clear my head. Before I could make it two houses away, someone grabbed me from behind. Thinking it was one of my brothers I stared yelling, only to have a hand clamped over my mouth.

"Relax, it's just me."I turned around and came face to face with Damon. I couldn't form words. "He just...and then he...ugh!" Damon looked like he was at least trying not to laugh. "Did he now," he said with an amused expression. Well, I certainly wasn't amused. I tried to shake my hand out of his grasp, but his grip remained firm. "I thought we had an agreement about you leaving the house." I was really starting to get annoyed at people telling me what to do. "I can go where I please," I spat at him. He looked taken aback by my sudden harshness, allowing me a quick moment to try and get away, but he recovered quickly and pulled me back. "Hey, what happened in there?" His face softened as he looked down at me.

"I'm sorry," I said, truly meaning it. "I'm taking everything out on you. It's just my brothers..." I stopped midsentence, as I felt his lips press against mine. "Why do you do that," I asked as we separated. "Do what," he asked innocently. "Kiss me." He smirked at me. "What, you don't enjoy it," he challenged smugly. "No, it's not that, you're pretty amazing at it...I mean...now _I_ don't even know what I mean. Just keep kissing me."

He laughed at my statement. "No need for praise, I know I'm good, but you haven't seen anything yet." I couldn't help but laugh at his statement. His ego was the perfect antidote for my bad mood, and I knew that behind his cockiness he was really just trying to get me to laugh and make light of what just happened.

"Why don't we head over to my house, Stefan and Elena are there, and as annoying and boring as they can be, it'd be a little safer." I rolled my eyes but obliged with a nod of my head, because I actually believed Damon when he told me what was safer.

We started walking towards his house in comfortable silence until I broke it with a question that had been gnawing at me the whole night. "Damon, your blood heals all wounds right?" We stopped walking and faced each other. Damon had a questioning look on his face. "Yeah, why?" I self-consciously looked down at the bite marks on my arms. "Well everything seems to be healing quickly, except these." I held out my arms for him to see, and he took them in his hands.

"You'll always have these bite marks; the injuries sustained by fangs always leave scars. They'll fade over time. But, if someone is turned with bite marks on their body, they are healed completely. So, either way you have them until you die." For some reason, that didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I guess I just needed to know what to expect. I also noticed how he said 'someone' instead of me. In all honesty I didn't know how I felt about being a vampire, or spending an eternity with Damon for that matter. That was a topic for a much later date; right now I had to respond to Damon, who I noticed was looking at me, expecting a verbal reaction.

I smiled. "So with the way I'm going I'll have them for like a month, right?" He didn't appreciate my joke. "You're not going to die," he stated, sounding like he was holding back rage. I acted like I didn't pick up on his tone. "No, I think you're confusing me with yourself. I'm the mortal one in this messed up relationship we have here. You live forever; I die whenever the time comes." Damon turned livid. "What, you think I'm just going to leave you for the coven to do as they please?" His sudden anger was bringing mine back as well. "Well you've done it before." I mentally chastised myself. That was low. I was instantly brought down from my rage.

"Wait, no I didn't mean that. I'm sorry, I told you, I'm just getting angry at the wrong person." He didn't respond. He just turned around and started walking in the direction of his house. I followed silently a few feet behind him.

We reached the house minutes later, and without a single word entered to find Mr. Saltzman, Stefan and Elena. Stefan seemed to notice the tension between Damon and me and stayed where he was. Elena, however, ran up to me and hugged me tightly enough to cut off circulation.

Speaking as normal as I could while being squeezed to death, I tried to coax her off of me. "Elena, I'm fine, you can let go now, my lungs, and ribs would very much appreciate it." Elena let me go from the embrace. I assumed she knew about Damon giving me his blood because she didn't ask if I was okay.

Damon was over by the mini bar cart pouring himself a glass of whiskey, still not attempting any contact with me. Stefan, probably sensing the awkwardness, changed the subject. "Hey, Norah, you seem to be doing well. You obviously know Mr. Saltzman our history teacher. He came over here to give us info on the Coven."

With everything going on, I forgot that Mr. Saltzman knew about vampires. Elena had told me how his wife, who she found out was her birthmother, became a vampire. He had started hunting vampires because he thought one had turned her unwillingly but later on he found out she wanted to be turned. He continued hunting anyway. "Hey Mr. Saltzman," I said, trying not to show my obvious distress.

Mr. Saltzman smiled slightly. "Hey Norah, you can call me Alaric when we aren't in class. I'm sure we will be seeing more of each other and I think it would just be better if we saw each other as equals."

I was unsure of how to reply to his statement, but luckily I was saved by a very familiar voice that was behind me. "Alaric, if you are done with the formalities, you can go. I'm sure you filled my brother in with all your knowledge, so if you don't mind, I have better things to do than talk to you." I turned around to find Damon taking another shot of whiskey. Great, I've driven him to drink. Go Norah!

Mr. Sa...I mean Alaric said his goodbyes to us, gave Damon a dirty look, then left. There was definitely some water underneath that bridge. Gosh, does Damon make enemies with everyone he meets, other than me of course. Though, that seemed to be changing quite rapidly.

Damon turned and walked up to his room with no sign as to whether or not he wanted me to follow. Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut? Deciding to stay where I was, I sat down across from Stefan and Elena. We talked for a while, until Stefan said he was going to go out for a 'drink' which I understood to be blood.

I was pathetically staring at the staircase; hoping Damon would come down, when Elena pulled me from my thoughts. "Is everything alright, you seem kind of quiet?" I sighed and looked back at her. "I think I might have upset Damon." Elena looked at me surprised. "Oh, I though maybe it was something with your brothers." I got kind of annoyed at myself, and maybe a little bit at Damon. After a huge fall-out with my family, I was worried about upsetting him. "Well, that too," I started lamely. "But, I figured I would give you what was most recent." Elena gave me a look of disbelief. "Okay, fine. I accidently insulted him, and now he won't talk to me." Elena rolled her eyes. "What is he five?" I immediately started shaking my head. "No, I was wrong, not him."

Elena seemed unconcerned with Damon, so the topic was quickly changed. Though I'll admit, anything she said went in one ear and out the other. My mind kept wandering to everything that happened in the morning, and I tried to decide whether or not I wanted to go home and face them. Were they sorry about what happened? Was I sorry about what happened? "Do you want to talk about what happened with your brothers," Elena asked, probably noticing her one-sided conversation.

Before I knew it, I was spilling everything to her. I told her what my family really was, how they never told me, what they explained to me today, everything. "Wow," Elena said unabashedly. I nodded my head. "Why don't you stay at my house for a while; just until you get things sorted out? I beamed at her. "Would Jenna or Jeremy mind?" She shook her head, "Of course not." Then I hugged her, taking her completely by surprise, extremely grateful that I wouldn't have to deal with my problems just yet.

I looked up at the staircase one more time as we were leaving. "Give him some time to cool off," Elena said from in front of me. "Stefan says he's been acting a little off lately." Excepting what she said, I followed her out the door.


	20. Chapter 20

After sneaking through my window to pick up some clothes, we made it to Elena's house around eight-thirty. The light was on in the kitchen as we walked through the front door. "Aunt Jenna, I'm home," Elena yelled. Jenna walked out of the lit up room, a dish towel in her hands.

"Hi Norah, how are you," Jenna said in your usual friendly voice. "I'm doing alright, how about you." She nodded her head. "I'm doing very well thank-you." Elena gave me one of my bags that she was holding. "Why don't you bring these up to my room?' I took them and went up the stairs, but stopped at the top, curious as to what Elena was going to tell her aunt.

"You know how I said that Norah had a rough time at home," Elena started. I wondered briefly about her statement. I never considered my home life to be "rough". Kids who had drug dealers for parents had 'a rough time at home'. I merely lived in a...unique circumstance. "I think so; No parents, and the brothers use her?" It was a bit strange seeing how strangers viewed my family. Of course I couldn't disagree with anything she said, but it was surreal to think that my friends knew what happened in my home from the little I spoke of it. "Yeah, and then remember you said that she should stick up for herself?" Jenna nodded her head, "Yes." Elena continued, "Well, good news is she did; bad news, now she has nowhere to stay. Can she stay here, please?"

Jenna looked sceptical for a moment, but a smile soon formed on her face. "I guess I'd be majorly hypocritical if I told you she couldn't." Elena smiled and hugged her. "Thanks Aunt Jenna!" As I heard her ascend the stairs, I quickly rushed to her room so I wouldn't be caught snooping. I almost jumped out of my skin at what I found. "Stefan," I exclaimed, my hand over my chest in surprise. Elena came in second later behind me. "Hey Stefan," she said, walking over to kiss him as if his presence was a normal occurrence.

"Do you live here too," I asked apprehensively. Stefan let out a chuckle and shook his head, "No." Feeling extremely uncomfortable on account of them still being locked in each others' arms, I left the room after announcing that I was going to thank Jenna for letting me stay. Elena nodded her head, not really paying attention to what I was saying.

When I walked down to the living room, instead of finding Jenna like I had planned, Elena's brother Jeremy was seated on the couch playing a video game. "Is that the KINECT," I asked excitedly as I sat on the couch behind him. "Oh, um yeah," he said, seeming surprised at my enthusiasm. "You have to let me verse you in KINECT soccer. I'm an undefeated champion." My smile faltered as I remembered versing my brothers in this game to earn my title. He laughed, "Well, as long as you're ready to be defeated."

We played for hours, until we were both too tired to go on. "I think I won," he said proudly. I laughed and patted his head. "Well, if that makes you feel better, then I'll let you think that." He playfully shoved me and I shoved him back. It was nice to have a distraction away from my rapidly growing problems. That was until he had to remind me of them.

"So, Aunt Jenna said you were going to be staying here for a while." I sighed, realising the fun was over. "Yeah, if that's alright with you." He shrugged his shoulder. "Sure, why not; you seem okay?" I smiled and got off of the couch. "Thanks, you're pretty cool yourself; even if you are in denial about my obvious win." He laughed, reaching for the remote to shut the television. "There will be a rematch," he said, attempting to glare, but failing miserably. "You bet there will be. Next week, same time, same place, and there will be witnesses." He shook my hand, "You're on."

Leaving Jeremy to shut off the game, I headed back up to Elena's room to retrieve the rest of my belongings. I knocked when I came to the closed door. No one answered and I knocked again, only to be left with the same results. Figuring they probably snuck out to his house for more privacy, I walked in.

What I saw made me pause. I quickly shut the door and took a couple of steps back. I wished I caught them having sex; at least that would have been something normal. I could have apologised, blushed a little, and been on my merry way. But of course Elena and Stefan were not a normal couple. Stefan was a vampire, and from what I saw, a vampire who was drinking her blood.

"Norah, wait," I heard Elena call from behind me. I stopped, but didn't turn around. "Let me explain," she said pleadingly. I honestly didn't think that I wanted her to. "It's alright Elena; it's none of my business. I'm just going to sleep downstairs on the couch. You're offering me the hospitality of your home, the least I could do is give you the privacy of your room. Goodnight." I retreated back down the steps, not giving Elena a chance to answer.

It scared me; I wasn't about to deny that. So many thoughts passed through my mind as I laid down on the cold unfamiliar couch. Was that why Stefan was with Elena? Was that why Damon bothered with me? No, I knew that wasn't true. He had plenty of opportunities to drink from me, and he didn't. But, that didn't help me stop worrying for my friend's safety. Was she in danger? I promised myself that if Damon decided to talk to me again, I would ask him about it. I fell asleep with thoughts of Damon running through my head.

Two days later was Thanksgiving; my first one without my family. I couldn't really say that I missed them, more the idea of them. As much as I wouldn't give up my new-found knowledge for anything, I couldn't help missing the times when I didn't know what was lurking in the shadows. Everything was happier and less complicated. I half hoped that my nieces would be able to maintain that blissful ignorance, but I highly doubted it.

The breakfast table was awkward to say the least. Small talk was being passed around, but neither Elena nor I could make eye contact with the other. Jenna didn't seem to notice. "You know, the four of us can't finish off a whole turkey by ourselves; Elena why don't you invite Stefan over. I'll ask Alaric if he wants to drop by. Norah, do you have anyone you want to ask?" Everyone looked at me. "No, I don't think so."

Jenna looked at me like I was a kicked puppy, making me shift in my seat. As we continued to eat, Elena hastily left the room after her phone vibrated. I heard her say Stefan's name as she went upstairs. "Have you met Stefan," Jenna asked as she started to clear the table. I got up to help. "Yes m'am," I replied. "Just Jenna would be fine; I'm not your mother," she joked. I stopped myself from saying 'yes m'am' again and just nodded my head, sitting back down next to Jeremy as we finished cleaning up.

"We need to get you around town Norah; meet some new people, get acquainted with some men." I nearly spit out my orange juice as Jenna finished her statement. "Oh well, that's very nice of you and everything, and I do appreciate it, but I don't think I want to get involved with anyone just yet." Jeremy snickered from behind his glass, and Jenna wore a look of disappointment. "Oh well, maybe in a couple of weeks." I nodded. "Yeah, maybe."

"You already have a boyfriend or something," Jeremy asked curiously, as Jenna went upstairs. "Or something," I responded hesitantly. Damon definitely wasn't my boyfriend. He wasn't that type of guy. Heck, I didn't even hold claims to him. But I had no doubt that we felt something for each other.

Elena went out early that morning without a word to anybody, leaving me to go grocery shopping with Jenna. The supermarket seemed empty to me, but judging by Jenna's frantic reaction, it was packed. I laughed to myself. Imagine what these people would think if they went to a crowded grocery store in New York.

I obediently followed Jenna until she thrust a list into my hands. "Here, we'll split up. You start on the canned foods." I grabbed a cart of my own and followed the signs hanging from the ceiling until I reached what I was looking for.

The first thing on my list was squash. I looked around at the shelves, and spotted it on the very top. Putting one hand on the shelf in front of me to keep my balance, I got on my tippy toes and reached as high as I could. I was maybe one centimetre away when another hand grabbed the can. As I turned around to yell at the person who took _my_ can of squash I came face to face with my brother Sawyer.

"Hi," he said while placing the can in my cart. I mumbled a hello, averting my eyes to the tiled floor. "How have you been," he asked, obviously trying to make conversation. "Good. How are the girls?" As petty as it sounded, I refused to ask about any of them. They didn't want me to be part of their lives, so I wouldn't be. "They miss you; we all do. Why don't you come home for Thanksgiving? You don't have to stay, just come and eat dinner with us."

"No," I said with a tone of finality. "Come on Norah-May, you know Alistair didn't mean it like that. Just come home and we can get it all sorted out." I shook my head immediately. "If Alistair wants to try and make amends, then he can come do it himself. Until then, I'm staying at Elena's." He gave me a disgusted look. "Do you think that's wise, considering the company she keeps?" I walked away angrily, not giving him response. I saw Jenna at the end of the isle waiting for me. "Fine walk away; that seems to be all you can do lately anyway!" I kept walking, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. Jenna put a comforting hand on my back as we checked out, and we made our way back to the house.

**A/N: Don't forget to review! Anything you have to say is very welcomed and appreciated. **


	21. Chapter 21

Stefan was already there when we arrived home at three-thirty. He and Elena suspiciously stopped talking as soon as I entered the living room. "Hello Norah," Stefan said politely. "Hello," I responded.

Just looking at his face made me think about what I saw last night. His eyes darkening as he lowered his mouth down to Elena's bleeding hand, the uneasy, yet calm look on her face. I shuddered at the thought. Stefan looked as if he were going to say something, but was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Come on in Alaric," I heard Jenna call from the kitchen. The door opened and closed, and I felt the couch sink down next to me. Only when I turned to greet him, it was not Alaric's face that I saw. "Damon," I said confusedly. "What forget who I was already," he asked with a smirk. Just as I was about to ask what he was doing here, Jenna walked in from the kitchen and beat me to it.

"Oh, Damon what are you doing here," Jenna asked, a perplexed look on her face. "Yeah Damon, I don't remember anyone sending you an invitation," Elena said heatedly. "I did." It was depressing really, after two weeks of ignoring me I still defend him. Everyone turned to look at me, and a fake smile formed on Jenna's face. "Alright then, the more the merrier I guess. I'll just go and set another place at the table. Elena, can you come help me in the kitchen?"

Stefan, Damon, and I were left in an awkward silence as Elena followed her aunt out of the room. I started to fidget in my seat, not able to get comfortable in the presence of the two people who probably wanted to see me the least. Stefan cleared his throat. "Well, I'm going to see if they need any more help." He got up and went into the kitchen as well, and I subconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

"Not getting along with Stefan," Damon asked from next to me. "It's not that," I responded, slightly surprised that he was speaking to me. "Then what is it?" He moved closer to me, a curious look painted on his face. "It's really none of my business, but I saw Stefan doing something to Elena last night that he probably shouldn't have been doing to her." As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised how it sounded.

Damon's smirk grew. "Care to demonstrate; I don't quite understand what you're referring to?" I rolled my eyes and moved closer to him so no one would hear. "Damon, he was drinking her blood," I whispered, my hand resting on his shoulder as I leaned close to his ear. "Well, he is a vampire, so it's not completely uncommon for him to, you know, drink blood," He said in his normal voice. "Shhh," I hushed him, putting a finger over my lips. His voice was way too calm for comfort.

"I thought Stefan drank animal blood?" Damon leaned his head back on the couch in annoyance. "Are we really going to talk about my brother's taste in blood right now?" I glanced down at the couch before looking back up to him. "Is that normal; I mean for a vampire to feed off of his human girlfriend?" He picked up his head from the couch and looked at me. "You're not going to drop this are you? If you're asking me if I'm going to ask the same of you the answers is no, I don't need the extra strength." I looked at him curiously. "Why does Stefan?"

"Why are you so concerned about this anyway?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Why are you answering a question with a question?" Damon rolled his eyes. "Just drop it, like you said it's none of your business anyway." I moved farther away from him, slightly insulted at the way he lashed out at me.

I sighed and turned to look at him. "Are you still upset with me because of what I said?" He turned towards me as well. "What makes you say that?" I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. "Well you've been avoiding me for the past two weeks." He shook his head, a sliver of a smile forming on his face.

"I haven't been avoiding you, so you can stop worrying your pretty little head on my account. If you must know, I found some more information on that coven. Or did you want to keep having these near-death experiences?" I took a breath to answer, but was interrupted by Jenna. "Norah, Damon, dinner's ready!"

I got up and headed to the kitchen with Damon following, his hand brushing against the small of my back as we entered the room. Damon sat down across from Elena, leaving me to sit in the seat next to him across from Stefan, who offered a small smile before we both looked away from the other. I looked around the table at everyone, my eyes landing on Alaric. I was so engrossed in talking to Damon; I didn't even notice him come in. He nodded his head to me in greeting, and I mouthed a hello.

Everyone helped themselves to the various foods on the table, and ate in an uncomfortable silence. It was almost as bad as eating with my own family; unspoken words hanging in the air that not everybody knew about. A piece of turkey was placed in front of me by Alaric, causing me to notice that I was still staring at everybody. Embarrassed at being caught, I looked down at my food and started to eat.

Stefan was the first to break the awkward silence. "Jenna, the food is amazing." Jenna smiled. "Thank-you Stefan." I glanced at Damon next to me who in turn looked back, smirking as I assumed he would be.

Dinner dragged on, making me want to jump for joy when it finally ended. Jenna told us that her and Alaric would clean up and get dessert ready, so we all dispersed. Elena and Stefan went up to her room, and Jeremy went up to his, leaving Damon and I alone.

I followed Damon into the living room, and sat down next to him on the love seat. He surprised me by putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. I sat there with my hands in my lap, refusing to return the contact; as much as I really wanted to lean into him, I didn't want him to think that he could just up and leave for weeks and then expect everything to be the same when he returned.

"Damon, what were you about to tell me before Jenna called us in?" He sighed. "You always know how to ruin the mood." I gave him a look and he sighed again. "Fine, like I said before, I found out more about the coven. It seems as though hunting isn't all that runs in the family." I looked at him questioningly. "You know how your parents were after the coven when they died right?" he looked at me and I nodded.

"The reason they went after the coven wasn't just because they were vampires. Norah, the man that attacked you two weeks ago, did he look familiar?" I shook my head no and gave him a confused look. Where was he going with this? "Well, you were probably too young to remember, but apparently your mother had a brother named Michael; your uncle. He was turned by someone in the coven." He paused and when I didn't say anything he continued. "When your parents found out, they planned to go after the coven and your uncle. Since your uncle was new at the whole vampire thing, he attacked them."

I took a moment to let it all sink in. "Damon, how did you find all this out?" I couldn't resist leaning into his touch any longer. After everything he found out, it was hard to stay mad at him. "Town archives," he responded while leaning his head onto mine. I pulled away from him. "The Town? How do they know about that?"

He pulled me back, seemingly unfazed by my outburst. "There is a secret Council in this town made by the founding families. They are dedicated to finding every vampire that roams this town and killing them. My father was the head of the Council back before I was turned, and I am on the council now seeing as my father is now supposed to be my great-great-grandfather, and I am the head of my founding family." He and I were laughing at this point, both seeing the irony of the situation: A vampire in the vampire hunting council.

As the laughter died down, I raised my head up from his shoulder and kissed him; extremely grateful for all that he has done for me. He responded by pulling me onto his lap and deepening the kiss. After two weeks of not seeing him, it felt good to feel his lips on mine once more. "Thank-you for finding all that out; it means a lot to me," I said, briefly pulling away. He continued to kiss down my neck in response.

"Ahem," a voice said from the corner of the room. I looked up from my spot on Damon's lap to see Jenna and Alaric. "I hate to interrupt, but dessert is on the table," Jenna said, looking as if she was trying not to laugh. I could only imagine the expression on my face. "Great, let's eat," Damon said, lifting me to my feet as he got up. I was glad at least one of us could speak, because if it was left up to me, we probably would have been sitting there for hours. He kept a loose grip on my arm as we once again sat at the table.

Minutes later, Jenna returned from upstairs with everyone else. Judging by the sceptical expression on Elena's face, I had a strong feeling that Jenna told her what she just witnessed. I turned my gaze back to the food on the table, pretending not to notice the look she gave me.

I nibbled on an oatmeal raisin cookie as Stefan and Alaric held a conversation about some football game; I wasn't really listening. I was too focused on Damon's hand resting on my thigh.

His hand didn't leave my leg until everyone started getting up from the table to clean off their plates. "Guys, I'll clean up. You all go off and have fun." Jenna was about to protest but I interrupted. "Please, it's the least I can do after allowing me to stay at your home." She reluctantly accepted my offer of cleaning and left with Alaric, followed closely by the others. The only one that stayed was Damon. I piled all of the plates and went to the sink.

As I was cleaning the dishes, Damon came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist and began kissing my neck again. I turned around in his arms, and caught his lips with mine, while snaking my arms around his neck. He lifted me up so I was now sitting on the counter. The kissing continued for a while before I broke it off.

I leaned my forehead on his chest while I tried to catch my breath. "As much as I would love to continue, I would rather we not put on another show for the people in the house, which is likely to happen if we continue." He slid me off the counter until I was on my feet. Then he went back to the table and grabbed some more dishes, all of which he did without saying a word.

We finished cleaning in silence; well really I finished cleaning while he leaned against the island behind me. "You shouldn't have left your house," Damon remarked. I shut the water off and turned to face him, ready to defend my actions. "I needed to leave that house." He shook his head. "No one has ever been invited in there, and it's a given that no one ever will be. It's practically a safe haven from vampires. You should have sucked it up and stayed." If that came from anyone's mouth but Damon's I would have slapped them silly, but I knew that he didn't mean it as an insult. It was his twisted way of showing concern. "I'm not going back," I bluntly stated. He rolled his eyes. "You're being over-dramatic."

I turned back towards the sink and continued to wash the dishes, slamming them down in frustration as I put them on the drying rack. I was not being dramatic. "You don't know what happened; you have no right to tell me where I can stay." Damon moved away from the island and leaned on the counter next to me. "And who is going to come to your rescue when Jenna invites a vampire inside that wants to kill you." I whipped my head around to look at him, but I didn't get the chance to speak.

We both turned around to meet Elena, who looked extremely uncomfortable walking in on our argument. Great, like the other night didn't make things awkward enough. I put on the best smile I could. "Oh, hey Elena."

She diverted her eyes when I looked at her. "Hey Norah, I was just coming to see if we could talk, but I obviously interrupted something."

"Yes you did," Damon rudely replied. Elena went to walk away. "Wait Elena, I do want to talk but can you give me a few minutes to finish cleaning up and then I'll meet you in your room."

I gave her a reassuring smile, and she gave me one back in return. "Okay, see you soon." She looked at Damon who wore a slightly annoyed expression, and then left the room.

"Going back there is out of the question; at least for right now. Plus Stefan's here all the time. I'm sure he could help if something happened," I said, returning to our conversation. "Stefan's only concern is getting Elena to safety. Anything besides that will be left in second place to fend for themselves. What will you do then?" I sighed. "Then I guess I'll have to fend for myself like you said." He guffawed. "Yeah a lot of good that'll do you. Without any training, you'll do just as well as any other human out there." I slammed my hands down on the counter as I finished the washing the last dish in the sink. "Can we just drop this? We're obviously not going to agree."

He threw one of the dish towels off of the counter, obviously annoyed with my answer. "This isn't going to just disappear because you don't want to talk about it." I picked the towel up off the floor. "All I'm saying is that there is nothing I can do about it. There is nothing to talk about unless you have some brilliant plan that doesn't involve me going home." He let out an annoyed huff, but didn't say anything further.

He either agreed with me or was mad at me. It was hard to tell, because I being right would get him just as annoyed. I got on my toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm going to go talk to Elena now; I'll talk to you tomorrow." I started walking out of the room when he called out to me, causing me to stop. "Just call me if anything happens; that's the least you can do if you insist on staying here." I smiled, still facing the away from him. "Okay."

I left Damon in the kitchen, and climbed the stairs to Elena's room. The door was closed so I knocked and waited for a response before opening it, trying to avoid what happened last time. "Come on in Norah." I opened the door and saw that Elena was on her bed looking at something on her laptop. When I entered, she shut the laptop, walked over to her desk and put it down.

She looked at me with nervousness written all over her face. "H-hey Norah, why don't you sit on my bed?" I obliged and sat across from her. We were both looking down at our laps, occasionally stealing glances up at each other; both of us probably wondering how to start. She broke the ice first. "Listen, Norah, I know that what you saw freaked you out last night, but it's not what is seems!"

I looked up at her pleading face, but rolled my eyes and began talking in a quiet voice so no one overheard. "Really? Because it seems that your vampire boyfriend was drinking your blood, but please do tell me what was really happening." I knew I was being harsh and that my sarcasm really wasn't helping the situation but I couldn't help it; I was scared.

"Stefan wants to get stronger, so he can protect me. Drinking animal blood makes him weaker than other vampires, but he can't just jump into drinking human blood after so many years of steering clear of it. I'm helping him build up his tolerance so he doesn't loose control; he only takes a little bit at a time." I stared at her, my eyebrows half way up my forehead.

"And when he builds up his tolerance and he's ready to take more? If he's not careful he can kill you Elena." Elena interrupted me, outrage clearly written all over her. "He is careful; Stefan would never hurt me." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "I'm sorry; it's not my place to say that. I'm just concerned, but I do trust your judgement. If you think that this is the right thing to do, then I won't utter another word about it."

Elena got up from her desk and sat next to me on the bed. "I appreciate that." She smiled up at me, and I returned the gesture. "Now that that is over with, why don't you come to the mall with Bonnie, Caroline, and me tomorrow? It'll be fun; take your mind away from obnoxious brothers and thirsty vampires." I laughed. "I guess I could use some down time."

"Great," Elena exclaimed. "We're leaving at eleven tomorrow. Caroline will pick something cute out for you." I just continued to smile, not wanting to break it to her that I didn't have any money to pay for clothes. I was just going along for the company.

We talked through the rest of the night until about eleven thirty, when we both decided to turn in. I fell asleep on the floor next to Elena's bed, just a little bit happier than the night before.

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	22. Chapter 22

"Norah, are you coming," I heard Elena yell from downstairs. "Yeah, I'll be down in a minute!" I put my hair brush down on Elena's vanity and looked at my reflection. A faded scar ran down below my left eye like a falling tear. I was told that it wasn't noticeable at first glance, but to me, it was all I could see. Besides the bite marks, that was the only part of my attack that the blood didn't heal; a constant reminder of what essentially changed my life for good. It dominated my appearance. I closed my eyes as I traced the bite marks on my chest, just barely covered by my shirt.

I opened my eyes and saw a new figure in the mirror, making me nearly jump out of my seat. "Must you," I asked, putting a hand to my rapidly beating heart. Damon sat down on the bed behind me, and I turned to face him. "You're too easy; it would be a crime if I didn't," he remarked, a smirk on his face like usual.

"And God forbid you ever broke the law," I replied with obvious sarcasm. I got up from my seat and kissed him before he could come back with any witty retorts, and he immediately responded. Damon was a really good kisser; I didn't want to stop anytime soon. However, unfortunately Elena was still waiting downstairs, and as much as I wanted to tell her I couldn't go, I didn't think she would take too kindly to: Well you see I would go, but I'm too busy making out with my vampire boyfriend on your bed. On the other hand, she did have a vampire boyfriend as well, maybe she would understand...no I had to go.

I reluctantly broke away from him. "Elena is waiting for me." He let out an exaggerated sigh. "Elena, Elena, Elena. Stefan you look different." I laughed as I went to the dresser to grab my purse. "Do you kiss your brother like that?"He walked over to me, not the least bit fazed by my comment, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "Do you kiss Elena like that; because that would be so hot?" I playfully pushed him away, which I imagine is remarkably like trying to push The Incredible Hulk; minus the green skin of course. He didn't move an inch.

"Norah, come on," Elena yelled again. "Goodbye Damon," I said, walking towards the door. In the blink of an eye he was in front of me again. "I have something to show you later." I looked up at him amused. "What is it?" He smiled. "Something...helpful." I gave him a confused look, but his expression didn't change. "Alright then, I'll see you later I guess." As soon as I said it, he was gone.

"What took you so long," Elena asked as I bounded down the stairs. I shrugged my shoulders. "Just doing my hair." She rolled her eyes. "I swear you're worse than Caroline." We got into her car and headed towards the mall.

"Alright, I'm going to warn you now. Caroline can get a bit, well, intense when she shops. Whatever she asks, just smile and tell her she looks fantastic, because if you don't we might just be there for days." Elena kept a perfectly sombre expression as she kept her eyes on the road. I laughed. "Surely you're over exaggerating." She gave me a half smile. "You'll see."

The mall was ridiculously small; probably half the size of the smallest mall in New York. "Is it even possible to spend more than a couple of hours in here? It's like the size of a thrift shop." Elena laughed. "Look there's Bonnie and Caroline." She started walking over, and I followed close behind her.

"Where have you two been; we've been waiting here forever," Caroline whined. Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Relax; we've been waiting for ten minutes not ten years." I wanted to hug the girl.

"I'm sorry we were late Caroline; it was my fault," I said, trying to be nice. Elena smiled at me appreciatively. "Oh whatever, I guess it's okay." I kept a smile plastered on my face, no matter how fake it now probably looked. This was one of Elena's best friends, and considering how nice she and her family were being to me, I needed to make the effort. Caroline started walking towards Banana Republic, and we all obediently followed.

As soon as we entered the store, Caroline's face lit up like a Christmas tree. She went from clothing rack to clothing rack, pulling out all sorts of garments. Elena and Bonnie, although with much less gusto, looked through the merchandise as well. I casually glanced at an item next to me, but the price nearly gave me a heart attack. I took a step closer to the overpriced plain blue shirt, thinking that maybe I misread it, but that was wishful thinking. You'd think for seventy bucks it ought to be made out of gold or something.

"See anything you like," Bonnie asked, coming up next to me. I shook my head. "No, I don't think so." She gave me a knowing look. "No cash?" I nodded. "Don't worry about it, me neither." I smiled, appreciating her attempt to cheer me up. "Thanks; it's good to know I'm not the only one." We turned away from each other when Caroline came bounding out of the dressing room.

"What do you think of this?" She spun around in front of us. It was an extremely short black skirt. I don't even think she'd be able to sit down in it. A little too revealing for my taste, but remembering what Elena told me, I tried to look impressed.

"That skirt is really hot Caroline," I said, trying to look envious. She smiled and swaggered her way back to the dressing room. "You're really good at this. Do you have sisters or something," Bonnie asked as Caroline closed the door. "I wish; four older brothers," I replied. "Ooooh, that's rough." I nodded my head, looking down at the floor. "So rough that I'm now living at Elena's house." She looked at me surprised. "What happened," she asked. I thought about how to word it without giving too much away.

"My brother Alistair told me I could never...hunt with them because I needed to watch his children," I said carefully. Bonnie looked confused. "Why would you want to hunt anyway? You get so dirty, and then you have to deal with the dead body; it's pretty nasty if you ask me." I bit the side of my lip, frantically searching my mind for a good reason. "Well my family has always hunted, and my parents were killed by, um, mountain lions while they were hunting. So now my brothers hunt them specifically, but they never told me about it. I guess I just wanted to be included." Bonnie gave me the most bizarre look I'd ever seen. Not that I blamed her; I was a pretty horrible liar, so it's not like anything I said sounded remotely convincing. Luckily I was saved by Elena.

"What's going on," Elena asked as she saw Bonnie's perplexed look. "Norah was just telling me how her parents were killed by mountain lions," Bonnie replied disbelievingly. Elena chortled. "Bonnie knows everything Norah; she's a witch remember?" I blushed furiously. "Oh yeah; sorry, I forgot." Bonnie laughed, and I found myself laughing along with her.

"So I take it that your brothers are actually vampire hunters and your parents were killed by vampires?" I opened my mouth to tell her the real story, but Caroline chose that moment to walk back over to us with bags full of clothing. "Ready to go eat?" I let out the breath I was just about to speak with, nodded, and followed the three of them to the food court.

"What do you want to eat," Elena asked me while scanning the line of fast food restaurants in front of us. I shook my head. "I'm not really that hungry," I answered, my hands subconsciously making their way into my empty pockets. Elena looked at me distrustfully. "Get something to eat; it's on me." I started to protest, but she interrupted me. "I'll pay for the food, and then you can pay me back when you can." I sighed. "Fine."

Caroline's mindless banter dominated the conversation as we ate our lunches. According to her, we were so lucky that Banana Republic was having a sale. I nearly shuddered when I thought about what the normal prices must be.

"This was so much fun, we have to get together again soon," Bonnie said as she hugged Elena and me goodbye. We both voiced our agreements. I awkwardly hugged Caroline after she and Elena separated. I waved as they went off to their cars and we went to ours.

"I like Bonnie," I stated as Elena turned out of the parking lot. "Good. You need more friends around here besides Damon and me. Not that I'd call you and Damon just friends with the way Aunt Jenna said the two of you were going at it on Thanksgiving." I smiled mischievously as I glanced over at her.

"So you're fine with me hanging around Damon now," I asked tentatively. "Well, that isn't exactly the word I would use. Stefan is pretty sure that Damon wouldn't hurt you, though I think we both agree that he's not a person you should constantly be around. But, if you aren't going to judge Stefan and me, I'm not going to argue with you about Damon either."

I averted my eyes towards the window. "So, you're saying you wouldn't mind if I went out with him tonight." Elena laughed. "I'm not your guardian; you don't have to ask me permission." I looked back over to her. "I know, but you're letting me stay at your house. If you don't feel comfortable with it, then I won't go." She sighed and looked over to me as she parked on her driveway. "Just for a little while, right?" I nodded my head rapidly. "Then I'm fine with it." I hugged her as she shut off the car. "Thank-you."

About an hour after we got home, Stefan came over and he and Elena excused themselves to her room. Realising I didn't know when Damon was actually coming over tonight I decided to see if Jeremy wanted to do something to pass the time. I walked up to his room and knocked. "Yeah?" I opened the door, and found him sitting on the bed suspiciously. "Um, hey, I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out, maybe have a re-match at KINECT?" He looked around the room nervously; his eyes darting to the closet more than a few times. He was about to say something but I interrupted. "Why do you look so nervous? Do you have a girl in the closet?" I was ear-to-ear smiling now. This was possibly the funniest thing I had seen in a while. He jumped out of the bed and stood in front of the closet door. "No, what are you talking about. The only living, breathing individuals in this room are you and me."I was smirking when suddenly something he said made my expression do a flip. "Living and breathing, huh'?" He looked a mixture between confused and freaked. "What, we are human's aren't we? We do that kind of stuff." He tried to laugh but just sounded like a nervous giggle.

"I don't know; just the way you said it made it seem like maybe there was something a little less human in there," I said, pointing to the closet. His astonished expression validated my theory. "You know about vampires!" The door to the closet opened and a girl walked out. "You don't need to freak out; I'm as harmless as your little friend Damon." I stood frozen, unsure of what to say, contemplating running to Elena's room to get Stefan. I started spouting out the first things that came to my head. "Who are you? What is going on here?"

The girl walked slowly towards me. "I'm Anna. Yes, I'm a vampire and the Salvatore brothers already know about me if you were planning on running to get Stefan." I smiled sheepishly. "But," she continued. "Elena doesn't exactly know about this little set-up, so if we could keep this a secret, that would be fantastic."

Before I could respond, Jeremy jumped in. "Norah, she's telling the truth. Please don't say anything to Elena. She has enough to worry about. Look, I know what is going on with you and your family; I thought you out of everybody would be the one who understood the best." I looked at him surprised. "You did not just pull that card." Jeremy walked over to where I was standing. "I'm fine. Anna is my girlfriend who just so happens to be a vampire that doesn't drink from humans so you don't need to worry. It's just like you and Damon." The thought popped into my head that both of the Salvatore brothers feed off of humans, but I kept that musing to myself.

I shook my head and smiled. "I beginning to think that this family may be just as messed up as mine." Jeremy laughed. "We're not that far gone."

Stefan stayed until about eleven, when Elena and I went to bed, but not even an hour after I closed my eyes, my phone started to vibrate. I turned on my stomach and clutched my pillow around my ears, letting it go to voicemail. It started to ring again. Elena turned the light on and sat up in her bed, "Just answer it. It's probably Damon, and I know he's too inconsiderate to stop and let us sleep." I scoffed at her and picked up the phone.

"Hello," I answered a slight annoyance to my tone. "What, did you forget about our plans? Norah, I'm insulted." I rolled my eyes. "I figured that you forgot. You know most normal people don't take someone out at midnight without some warning at least. I was hoping I was dreaming, because at least then I would be getting some sleep."

I could practically hear Damon's smirk on the other line. "Well then you should be thanking me, because your dreams are coming true. Get dressed and come outside." Before I could argue he hung up.

I got up off of my pile of blankets on the floor and started to get changed. "You're actually going," Elena asked incredulously. "He said he had to show me something useful. If it's something that I can use against the coven, then I suppose losing some beauty sleep is worth it." Elena rolled her eyes and laid back down on her bed. "Will you cover for me," I asked while walking towards the door. "What should I say if he doesn't bring you back?" It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'll see you in the morning Elena; goodnight." She shut the light and pulled the covers over her. "Goodnight."

.


	23. Chapter 23

I spotted Damon leaning on the passenger door of his car on the driveway as I quietly climbed out one of the downstairs windows. Without a key to lock the door behind me, the regular exit out the front door wasn't an option.

"What do you possibly have to show me that couldn't wait until morning," I asked as he opened the door for me to get in the car.

"I already told you, it's something…" I interrupted him, "I know something useful, but what exactly?" He was already in the driver's seat starting the car as I finished my sentence.

"You really don't like surprises do you?" I shook my head.

"Don't you think that I've had enough surprises in these last couple of months? I abhor surprises," I said in annoyance.

Damon guffawed. "Ooooh, big word; now I'll definitely tell you." I rolled my eyes and looked out the window away from him.

"Just go to sleep. Maybe you'll be a little more pleasant when you wake up." Despite how tired I was, I seriously considered staying awake the rest of the car ride just to be fickle, but exhaustion won that argument and I soon fell asleep.

The next time I woke up it was seven o'clock. I blinked a couple of times; presuming that it was just my still groggy mind not correctly processing the numbers, but of course the seven was still there, clear as day. I looked over at Damon who was still driving down an empty highway. "Good morning sunshine," he said sarcastically. I looked at him in disbelief.

"Don't give me 'Good morning sunshine'. Driving me seven hours away from where I live without telling anyone, including me, where you are taking me has passed being called a surprise. You need to tell me where we are going."

Damon shook his head. "Gosh, kids these days; no patience." I slammed my hand down on the door next to me in frustration. "Please pull over," I said, trying to compose myself. Surprisingly he did what I asked.

I got out of the car and started to walk towards the direction we came from, not really sure where that would lead to. "What are you going to do, walk back to Virginia," Damon yelled from behind me.

"If I have to!" I quickened my pace, but had to stop short when he appeared in front of me. Damn vampire speed.

"Why are you doing this," he said softly, looking down at me.

"It is my life; I want some control over it. Just tell me where you are taking me, and what we are doing there. It obviously concerns me. I have the right to know." I tried to push past him, put Damon held my arms.

He let out a defeated sigh. "We're in Tennessee; about an hour and a half from where we're going. There's this guy that I heard about, a hunter. I think he could help you." I looked into his eyes, trying to gauge if he was telling the truth. He looked sincere.

"Okay; then let's go." I turned around and started to walk towards the car. "What, that's it," Damon asked in disbelief, still standing in the same spot.

"Yep, that's it." He laughed as we both got back into the car.

"You are a piece of work Norah," he said, pulling back onto the road. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled up at him.

After a few minutes of being awake, I was beginning to wish that I would have stayed asleep. It was so cold in the car, I started to shiver. "Don't you have heat in this car or something; it's December." I started to press buttons in hope that one of them might be the heat, but Damon slapped my hand away.

"And why would I need heat in my car," he asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"Gee, I don't know, to keep people warm."

He smirked. "Well, if warmth it what you're looking for, there happens to be a seat available right over here." He patted the spot next to him. After a second to consider my options, I moved towards him in defeat.

"Now isn't that better," he said putting his arm around me, resting his hand on my ass, my head leaning on his chest that was still warm from being covered by his leather jacket. I looked at him with upturned eyebrows, and he smirked down at me. I smiled amusedly. "Would you hold it against me for the rest of my life if I said yes," I asked, closing my eyes, enjoying my newfound heat. "Yeah, probably," he responded. "Then you'll never know."

About an hour later, I felt Damon take his hand off of me in order to turn into a parking lot. I had to stop myself from groaning in disappointment as I was forced to move away from him and rely on my own body heat to keep warm.

When the car stopped, I hesitantly looked around to see where we were. I saw a sign that indicated the building was a diner. "This is where you're taking me," I asked in disbelief.

He rolled his eyes. "No, but excuse me if I thought you might be hungry after nearly eight hours in a car. I can't have you all cranky," Damon said, climbing out of the car.

I scoffed and followed his example. "I have every right to be cranky!" I started shivering again as a cold breeze pierced through my skin. What on earth possessed me to wear short sleeves in forty-degree weather? I tried rubbing my arms to create some heat, but it wasn't doing much.

"Do you require a heat lamp or something, here," he said, taking off his jacket and throwing it to me.

I caught it, shocked at his kind gesture. "Thanks." He didn't say anything, but I suppose I can't expect too many displays of good manners in one day. I put on the jacket, which was really more like a dress on me. My hands weren't even close to reaching the ends of the sleeves and it nearly went down to my knees; but it was warm.

We walked in and sat in a booth that one of the waitresses pointed us to. From the pastel-coloured building to the employee uniforms, I felt like I had just walked into the 1950's. Kind of like the ones they have in those small hick towns. But then again, people probably say the same thing when they pass through Mystic Falls. It doesn't get much smaller than that.

Our booth was silent, Damon looking down at the menu, and me sitting there awkwardly trying to think of a conversation. His blank stare certainly wasn't helping. I sighed. "I'm sorry if I've been kind of annoying. I really do appreciate this, it was just unexpected."

He looked up at me, and then back down at his menu. Now he was just being purposely difficult. "What, do I have to take off my clothes to get you to talk to me or something?"

Damon looked back up, smirking. "That just might help to ease the hurt you've caused me."

I rolled my eyes. "So we're good," I asked, already suspecting the answer.

"As long as no one snaps at me again; who knew being nice was such hard work?" He tried his best to put on a look of pure amazement.

"Yeah yeah," I said, picking up my menu to look at. As soon as I picked my food and placed it down again, a waiter came over.

"Hey, are you new around town. I think I would have remembered seeing such a pretty face. I'm Ryan." Figures in a room full of women, we get the only male server. As I looked up at him, I noticed he was staring right at me, waiting for an answer.

"Um," I said, looking down to Damon out of discomfort; but he was looking up at the flirtatious waiter, muscles rigid. I looked back up.

"Well, no. We're just passing through." I started fiddling with the frayed edges of my menu, unable to make eye contact with him.

"Now that's too bad; I could still show you around before you leave though," 'Ryan' said, sounding undeniably desperate.

"Maybe some other time…," I trailed off. The waiter smiled; presumably taking that as saying I was interested. Damon looked less than amused.

"Are you ready to order? I can get you anything you want." The waiter put his pen down to the paper, ready to write down whatever I might say.

"I'll just have whole wheat toast," I said quickly, shoving the menu into his hands. A second after, my phone started to vibrate. Thank God Almighty! "Excuse me!" I practically ran from the table into the bathroom, not even bothering to see who it was.

"Hello," I answered the happiness and relief clearly evident in my tone. And then the yelling ensued...

"Where the hell are you? What could you possibly be doing with him for eight hours! Are you okay?" It was Elena. She continued rambling on for a good five minutes before she stopped to take a breath.

"Are you done," I asked sarcastically. "Because I wouldn't mind speaking." She didn't sound amused, but I continued anyway. "Damon found someone who can help me with my hunter instinct stuff. We're in Tennessee; I'm not sure when we're going to be back. Please keep covering for me!"

Elena huffed in annoyance. "Fine; but you better be back by the end of the week or else I'm reporting you as a missing person."

I laughed. "We have a deal."

I hung up with Elena, and walked back to our booth. As I was about to sit down on my side of the table, Damon grabbed my arm and pulled me down next to him.

"That guy is such a little ass," he remarked, clearly angry.

I let out a hearty laugh. "That's like the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think?"

He looked down at me, and for a second, I saw his eyes dart to the side. I turned my head to look at where he glanced, but Damon turned me back to him, and slammed his lips into mine. It was one of the more passionate kisses he has given me, discluding that time on his bed of course. Nothing beat that one. Just as I felt his tongue slide past my parted lips, I heard a throat clearing behind me. I quickly pulled away, embarrassed.

"Here." Ryan practically threw our plates on the table and then quickly scurried off. Damon was smiling.

"Are you good now," I asked amused. "You've established your macho male dominance?"

He leaned back in his seat and stretched his arm around me. "Norah, I established that way before that puny kid was born. There was never any competition."

I chortled. "Oh sorry, I must have imagined it."

He kept his hand firmly on my waist throughout the meal. I picked the crust off of my toast and nibbled at the rest, while Damon ate his breakfast next to me.

"So how did you meet this guy that you're taking me to; what's so special about him," I asked as I pushed away my second piece of toast. It was too burnt for my taste.

"I've never actually met the guy; just heard about him. He works with people like me," Damon said, putting extra emphasis on the end of his sentence.

"Do you think that he'll even be willing to help me?" If he was half as introverted as my family was, we had no chance.

Damon put his fork down and waved over one of the waitresses that were standing nearby for our cheque. "I hate dealing with hunters. One little compulsion and I could get him to jump over the moon."

I looked at him confused. "Compulsion?"

Damon let out a small chuckle and shook his head. "I keep forgetting how much you don't know; watch this." He reached over me and stopped a man who was walking by, who turned towards Damon in response.

"What," the man asked annoyed.

Damon made eye contact with him. "Go out to your car and drive home. You're not hungry anymore."The man looked as if he were in a daze, but when Damon looked away, he did as well.

"You know I'm not that hungry anymore; I think I'm going to head home." The guy turned around, walked to his car, and drove out of the lot.

I looked over at Damon. "I'm not going to lie, that was pretty awesome," I said, astonished at his 'compulsion'.

He nodded his head. "Yeah, I amaze myself sometimes."

The waitress that Damon called over unfortunately got our waiter to come, who was walking over to me, receipt in hand. He placed it in front of me and winked as he walked away. I shuddered. Creep.

I picked up the small paper, and scanned it over. On the bottom was what I presumed was his phone number with a scribble below it that read, "Just in case".

Damon snatched the receipt from my hand and read it as well, nearly ripping it in two with his tight grip. I looked down at the table as Damon glanced up at me.

"I'm sorry; I don't really have any money to pay for my food. I don't know when, but I'll pay you back," I said bashfully.

"I don't see anyone here asking you for money," Damon said giving me a light tap on my hip, signalling me to climb out of the booth. We both walked up to the cash register, Damon pulling money out of his wallet.

"Thanks," I said as we walked out.

"You know, if you really want to pay me back, I know a few way you could." I laughed, rolling my eyes at his suggestion.

"Just get in the car Damon." He smirked at me like always and climbed into the driver's seat. I followed suit and slid all the way over next to him.  
>He responded by putting his arm around me as I laid my head against his shoulder. He turned on the car, and pulled out of the parking lot.<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

I was hesitant to get out of the car when we pulled up to a decrepit-looking cabin-like house. It looked like something that just came out of a horror movie. The shutters were barely hanging on, there were holes in the screen door, and the shingles on the roof had seen better days.

"Damon are you sure about this," I asked wearily.

"Of course; we wouldn't be here otherwise, and besides, this is your best and only shot, so I would take it," he responded with his usual confidence.

"Do you really think this guy is for real?" I twirled my hair around my fingers, nervous at the prospect of heading into the house.

Instead of answering, Damon opened his door and exited the car, and I reluctantly followed. I constantly glanced back and forth at the eerie woods that surrounded me; grabbing Damon's hand as a particularly loud growl filled my ears from what I presumed was a nearby animal. Damon looked down at me and shook his head, laughing, but kept a firm grip on my hand nonetheless. The inside door of the house opened before we even got the chance to knock, revealing a man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties, with a greying beard and a weathered face.

"What do you want," the man asked in a gruff voice, eyeing Damon up and down. I looked down and saw that the man was pointing a gun at Damon. I resisted the urge to laugh; like a gun would do him any good. I looked up to Damon to share my amusement, but his gaze was firmly locked on the hunter in front of us, a serious expression adorning his face.

"I'm here for her," Damon said, pointing at me with his thumb. "So you could put that little toy away," he continued. The man turned his attention to me.

"And who are you supposed to be sweetheart," he asked, just as harshly as before. I let go of Damon's hand and wrapped my arms around myself.

"Norah-May Samson; I'm a hunter, well sort of." The man smirked, looking amused.

"And how are you sort of a hunter?" He leaned against the doorframe, waiting for my response.

I bit the side of my lip, trying to think of a good way to word what I was trying to say.

"All of my brothers are hunters, but I'm not; they never told me and now I can't sense anything because, well you know why." The man started to laugh, which for some reason made me very nervous.

"Come on in Norah-May Samson; and I guess you can bring your vampire too." He opened the door, and just as I was about to walk in, Damon stepped in front of me and grabbed my hand again, keeping me behind him as we walked into the house.

"The names Bobby Jones," the hunter said, putting his gun down and offering me his hand. I shook it lightly and quickly returned my hand to my side.

"So what brings you all the way out here, when you have a slew of brothers at home who can train you," Bobby asked.

I looked down at the floor. "I don't think that they're much in the mood to help me. Plus there is nothing really to train; my senses are gone."

He looked almost sympathetic for a second, but his expression quickly turned serious. "Well that's what you get for hanging around with his kind." Bobby motioned his head towards Damon.

Damon glared,"Are you going to help her or not?"

Bobby nonchalantly picked up a wooden stake and started to sharpen it. "Sure I can help her; but you need to leave for a while. Say five or six days; take a vacation," Bobby finished sarcastically.

Damon sneered angrily. "Not a fucking chance."

Bobby slammed the knife he was using down on the table. "Then how do you expect me to help her? I need you gone so she can get her senses back. Without them you might as well throw her to any nearby coven and let them suck her dry."

Damon looked like he wanted to kill him, and Bobby didn't look that far behind. I stepped in front of Damon, not letting go of his hand. "This was your idea," I started slowly. "Listen to him; I'll be fine."

He glared down at me, but his face soon melted into a softer expression. "I'll be in the next town over. Promise me you won't do anything stupid."

I gave him a short peck on the lips. "I promise."

Damon left in a huff, pointedly slamming every door he could to show his anger at the situation. In all honesty, I wasn't that comfortable with it myself, but what was I going to do, super glue myself to Damon? I needed to be trained.

"So now that that is taken care of," I heard Bobby say as I turned back around to him. "Have you ever shot a gun?"

I looked at him wide-eyed. "No, why would I?"

Bobby shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

We stood there awkwardly for a couple of seconds before Bobby started to speak again. "Do you want to learn?"

I stared at him perplexed. "And how would that help me against a vampire?" Wasn't this guy supposed to be a really good hunter? "And why did Damon need to leave," I asked with a bite to my tone.

"They're wooden bullets ya moron. And being around a vampire every day keeps weakening your senses until they're gone completely, so to get 'em back ya need to go vampire-free for a while," he said, obviously getting annoyed at my ignorance towards the subject.

I glared at him, not appreciating being talked down to. "And when Damon comes back? Won't my senses go away again?"

Bobby smirked. "And now we're back to do you want to learn how to shoot a gun. When you kill a vampire, your senses will be set for life."

I hesitated at the thought of versing an unknown, dangerous vampire, but swallowed my fear. "Alright," I stated confidently. "I'll do it."

"Well that's more like it," Bobby said satisfied.

"But you do you need to answer one question for me," I said, breaking his good mood.

"I don't have to do anything, but go ahead."

"How did you find out all of this?"

Bobby's expression turned cold, and right away I knew that I asked the wrong thing. "That is none of your damn business. Now come on before I change my mind." Bobby walked into the backyard and slammed the door behind him. I seriously considered not following and calling Damon right then and there, but that annoying little voice of 'reason' in the back of my head forced my feet forward, and before I knew it I was holding a gun to a target.

"You're hopeless," Bobby exclaimed after my umpteenth try four hours later.

"I'm hitting the board, just not the centre," I yelled at him frustrated.

He laughed bitterly. "Great, so when you shoot a vampire it will be almost dead. Have fun with that."

I threw the gun down on the ground, furious. "How do you expect me to hit that stupid target when all you've done is yelling at me since I got here? Maybe if you got off of your high horse for just a second of your miserable life and showed me how to use this thing, I can shoot that damn target and we can both stop wasting each others time!"

I was out of breath by the time I finished yelling, and to frustrate me further, Bobby was smirking at me.

"Pick up the gun," he ordered.

I looked at him exasperated, trying to probe out if he was being serious; he was. I angrily slammed my hand down to the ground and picked up the wretched thing.

"Happy," I asked while reloading the gun.

"Shoot it."

I clutched onto the handle tightly. "You have to be kidding me!"

I harshly turned back towards the target, and without even trying to aim, I shot the gun and turned back to him angrily, ready to tell him that I was going home, but he now adorned an actual smile and was wordlessly pointing at the target.

I turned around to see how far I missed that it was so funny to him, but what I saw threw me for a loop. The bullet hit dead centre. I turned back around to him in amazement.

"How...," I started.

He interrupted me. "Hunters are ruled by emotions when they hunt; usually a hatred for vampires. That's how we're so efficient. We're focused on only one thing, the kill."

I found myself laughing out of nowhere. "So my hatred for you makes me shoot better?"

He gave me a fake glare and grabbed the gun from my hand. "Don't get too excited. It's gonna take more practise than that. But I think that we're done for the night."

My smile grew larger. "Thank-God," I exclaimed dramatically.

"Oh just get in the house," Bobby said, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile.

I practically ran there, my hatred for Bobby rapidly deteriorating.

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was on holiday in Disney World! Don't forget to review!**


	25. Chapter 25

I unpleasantly awoke to my mattress being flipped over, and my poor body falling to the cold, hard wooden floor.

"Damn you sleep late. It's almost seven o'clock!"

I quickly remembered where I was and slowly peeled my eyes open to reveal Bobby's impatient face. I looked over to the window.

"It's barely light out," I half whined, turning onto my stomach with every intention of going back to sleep.

The blanket was harshly tugged away from me. "Exactly why you need to get up; I have a lot of training I need to pound into your thick head. Now, up!" He gave my bum a swift kick.

"Alright, alright," I half moaned while getting off of the floor. I walked away from him and sat at the kitchen table, crossing my arms in a huff.

"So, what are you teaching me today," I asked. Bobby picked up a plate off of the counter and set it in front of me before sitting down as well. I looked down at the 'food' and poked it with my fork.

"What is this exactly," I asked wearily. Bobby gave me an offended look.

"Don't you know pancakes when you see them? I didn't think you were that dumb."

Not wanting to offend him so early in the day, I picked up the supposedly edible food and took a small bite, swallowing down the awful doughy taste.

Breakfast was excruciatingly long. As I begrudgingly ate the foul tasting pancakes, Bobby jabbered on about how before he taught me anything further I needed to "get my ass into gear and shoot that gun dead and centre", which I actually found a lot easier after my victory the night before. After my tenth time in a row hitting the target, without a hem or a haw, Bobby moved onto my next bit of training. Needless to say, after four more days similar to that one, I was exhausted, but I never felt more prepared.

There was so much involved with being a hunter, I found it more and more unbelievable every day that my brothers could keep something this big from me all these years. From making wooden bullets and stakes to growing vervain, and even aligning yourself with werewolves if you could. {Apparently their bite could kill a vampire}. It was a lot to take in.

"Bobby do you need any help," I called into the kitchen from my spot in the next room.

"Kid I'm making spaghettiOs; just watch TV or something."

I was going to mention how I had to take over cooking just the day before when he managed to mess up macaroni and cheese, but we were having a good day so I thought it better to bite my tongue.

As yet another segment of the news went off {Bobby only had seven channels}; I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. The caller i.d. read Damon; he called twice a day like clockwork.

"Yes, I'm still alive," I said as I picked up the phone.

"No need to get snippy. I've had to resort to changing my number with the amount of times your friend Elena has called to whine to me. I could only imagine the level of annoyance she would reach if I came back to Mystic Falls with your dead body," he replied.

"And my death wouldn't affect you in the least," I asked challengingly.

"Well aren't we getting bold," he responded sarcastically, successfully avoiding the question.

"What have you been doing anyway?" As Damon went on chatting, or more than likely making up stuff, about his last couple of days, I found my eyes wandering to some loose pictures on the table next to me. Most of them were of a guy about my age playing with a little boy, but all of the photographs were black and white, so I doubted that they were still the same age.

I flipped one of them over and read the writing on the back. _Joey and Bobby 1963_. Who was Joey? On further inspection, the two boys definitely looked similar; possibly brothers.

It was only after Damon practically screamed my name through the phone that I was pulled away from my analysis of the picture.

"Sorry, what?"

"I asked if that nut said when I could come back. What are you doing over there?"

"What...oh nothing. Listen, I'll call you back tomorrow, okay? Bye." I heard him start to protest, but I hung up before he was able to get a word in and walked into the kitchen. Bobby was just putting the spaghettiOs into bowls.

"Hey Bobby, who's Joey," I asked, pushing the picture forward on the table.

He practically dropped the pot of spaghettiOs when he heard the name Joey. As he turned from the stove to face me his face showed one of both shock and anger, but was quickly absorbed into a defeated expression. He walked over to the table and picked the photo up.

"I'm getting soft because of you." He took another second to look at the picture before answering my question. "That's my brother."

He was silent for a few moments as if he were lost in a memory, and I felt bad interrupting him, but I'm too curious for my own good.

"What happened to him?"

He set the picture down on the table and sat down in front of his bowl.

"Oh he's not dead if that's what you're asking," he answered with a shake of his head. He picked up a spoonful of food and shoveled it into his mouth, slowly chewing and swallowing it.

"He's a vampire." He was still looking down at his macaroni when he said it, but when I looked at his face, it wasn't sadness or despair that I saw. It was something else...perplex maybe?

"Is he...I mean does he, how do you...?" I was at a loss for words. What are you supposed to say when someone throws something like that at you and they don't even look upset about it, good for you?

"I know what you mean. You want to know how I stand it; me being a hunter and him a vampire. But the truth is that I don't really know myself, so I can't help you and your little boyfriend. Something happened the first time I killed a vampire." He put another spoonful of food into his mouth, obviously not wanting to discuss it further, but I was not intending on giving him a choice. I couldn't believe that it hadn't occurred to me how different my relationship with Damon would be after this. Every time I'm near him I'll feel anxious, let alone how I'll feel kissing him; every sense I have telling me to kill him.

"What do you mean something happened," I asked, trying not to sound too demanding.

He sighed. "All I mean is that my brother took me out hunting my first time, and after I killed the thing I could sense every vampire but him. No one could explain it, including me."

The rest of the meal was silent. My mind kept going back to how I felt the first time I met Damon at the rest stop. My heart beating out of control, that need to run, and the sense of impending danger. That felt like forever ago. I couldn't even try and imagine feeling those things around him now. In fact, he was now probably one of the only people that I did feel comfortable around. I'm not sure when that happened.

Bobby put his dish in the sink, and quickly left out the back door without a word about where he was going. I knew I pushed him too hard about his personal life but I couldn't help it. I cleaned up dinner and decided to sit on the couch in the living room and watch TV. A few minutes later, gunshots started ringing throughout the house. I got up and checked out the back window. A little ways into forest I could make out his figure. He was shooting at the targets, probably letting off steam.

I returned to my previous position on the couch, and half paid attention to the news channel. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, I'm being shaken on the shoulder by Bobby.

"Come on, you have an early morning, go to bed," he said, then turned and headed to the staircase. I followed suit after rubbing some of the sleep out of my eyes.

When I reached the top of the steps Bobby stopped me in my tracks. "I know I have been really tough on you the past couple of days, and I know that you have mixed feeling about even getting your senses back, but I want you to know that despite whatever happens with that vampire that brought you, it'll all be worth it. The first time you kill one and you see the relieved faces of the people you save, you'll know that." I was about to interrupt but he just continued, "Norah, you are a lot stronger than you think, and you can handle all of this, it's in your blood. We have come this far, and I don't care what doubts you may be having, I won't let you quit."

I wasn't sure how I felt about what he told me. I wanted to lash back and say that I know I'm strong enough, but I know that it would be a lie. When it's time for me to go home and I'm forced to leave Elena's house because I can't stand being around Stefan, what options would I really have? I'll have nobody unless I go crawling back to my brothers, and who really has the strength for that. Not wanting to voice what was on my mind, I gave him a simple "Okay".

"Okay?" he asks, obviously expecting a different answer.

"Yes, okay. I don't know what to think right now, but I know I can't quit, there is too much at stake. Listen, I appreciate everything you have done for me, and I won't make you regret helping me. The stuff you're I'm learning from you is going to save my life. But right now I'm very tired, so goodnight." I turned and headed to my room, just faintly hearing Bobby wish me goodnight in return. I crashed on my bed, and in a matter of minutes, I was sound asleep.


	26. Chapter 26

My entire night was spent tossing and turning, constantly waking up from a nightmare. As morbid as it sounds, every time I closed my eyes I saw death. Vampire fangs sinking into human flesh, screams of terror, people running for their lives, and most of all: blood.

After about my umpteenth time waking up in a cold sweat, I looked over to the digital clock next to me, which unfortunately only read 2:36 am. I was about to attempt sleep again, when I saw a light turn on from underneath my door. Happy that I wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping, I got out of bed and scurried out of the room to see what Bobby was up to. However, I never would have guessed what he was actually doing.

When I walked into the kitchen, Bobby was fully dressed, quickly loading guns and stakes onto his belt and into his pockets. "What's going on," I asked a hint of panic noticeable in my voice.

Bobby looked up at me for a second before returning to what he was doing. "Get dressed," he ordered. "There are vampires in the area; you're about to have your first bit of field experience."

Sensing the hurriedness in his voice, I went back to my room to get ready without another word. Within two minutes I was dressed, shoving my cell phone that had two missed calls from Damon into my pocket, and running out the door after Bobby.

"Here," he said, shoving a gun and two stakes in my hands. "Stay close to me unless I say otherwise."

I nodded my head in understanding, attaching the stakes to my belt, but keeping the gun in my hands. My knuckles were soon white from my tight grip on the object.

The woods were pitch black. My vision was restricted to the small tunnel of light that came from Bobby's flashlight, which terrified me beyond belief. I kept looking around me, trying to make something out of the eerie darkness, but to no avail.

"Take this," I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Bobby's voice. After regaining my composure, I looked towards him to see that he was holding another flashlight in his outstretched hand. "I'm going to go that way," he said pointing to the left. "And you go the other way towards the town."

I wanted to tell him no, that I wasn't going to leave his side upon pain of death, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. He thought I was ready for this, and if I said otherwise that would be a definite insult to his training.

We parted ways, Bobby rushing off in one direction, and my shaky legs carrying me in the other. I clutched my arms closer to my body as the crisp December wind pierced through even Damon's heavy leather jacket.

The farther I went into the thick forest, the more panicked I got. I could feel how close the vampires were getting, but my lack of sight rendered any weapon I had useless. The flittering light from my flashlight could attest to how badly my hands were shaking.

As I tried to readjust my grip to decrease the light's movement, a loud snapping sound stopped me dead in my tracks. Without even thinking, my hands dropped the flashlight. Realising what I did, I bent down to pick it up again, but in a second, the light was gone. I ran.

I didn't know what direction my feet were taking me in. I was too afraid to think about it. I shot into the darkness behind, hoping to hit something, but no sounds followed. I ran faster, reaching into my pocket for my cell phone, hitting the redial button as I put it up to my ear. It barely rang once before Damon answered.

"Did you forget how to answer your phone or something," he answered in annoyance. I felt tears build up in my eyes as I heard his voice.

"Damon." Even I could hear the fear behind those two syllables.

"Where are you? What's wrong?" His entire demeanour changed, his voice laced with worry.

"I'm in the woods." I couldn't stop the tears from falling down my face as I spoke. I sounded like a scared child, which was exactly how I felt. Damon started saying something else to me, but I couldn't pay attention to him. All of a sudden my senses got stronger. My heart started beating out of control, creating a slight ringing in my ears, when I suddenly realised that I had stopped running.

I took in a gasp of air as more tears started to fall. "Norah," I heard Damon say. "Listen, I'm on my way. I'm going to be there in a minute. You're going to be fine."

That's when I felt two cold hands grab my arm and pull me back. I let out a blood curdling scream as I dropped the phone. I heard Damon frantically yelling from the other line, but I could no longer make out what he was saying.

The arms wrapped around my waist, and I felt teeth graze the skin on my neck. I shot behind me with the gun once again, earning a grunt of pain from the figure behind me. His grip loosened enough for me to run. I knew I didn't hit the heart, but it was enough to slow him down for a minute or two.

I screamed again as I continued to run, but I didn't last long. Soon enough I was on the ground after tripping over some unseen object. The vampire held me down by the shoulders. This time I felt the fangs break through my skin, but I still held a firm grip on the gun in my hand. I shot in front of me, and it immediately retracted from my skin and fell to the ground next to me. I hit close to the heart. I could feel it.

I detached one of the stakes from my belt, and felt around for the body next to me. I soon felt a hard chest underneath my fingertips. Without thinking, I stabbed where I thought the heart would be, but while the body beneath me did scream in pain, it still was not dead. "Come on little hunter girl, you can do better than that can't you?" The voice was deep and taunting, making me even more nervous than I already was. It very probable that I only had one chance left before the vampire recovered enough strength to attack me once more, and with our close proximity that would mean my death.

I pulled my arm back once more, targeting a spot near my first attempt, but as I was stabbing down, I felt another hand enclose over my own, guiding me down to the vampire's chest. I took in a gasp of air, ready to turn around and shoot at the figure behind me, but a hand wrapped around my midsection, keeping me firmly in place.

I felt the stake break through the skin and pierce the heart. As soon as I felt the blood splatter up onto me, I dropped the weapon and the arm around me relaxed. I pushed away from it and grabbed my gun once more, shooting into the night. "Get away from me," I yelled through tears. I heard a groan come from a couple of feet in front of me, and I froze. Just minutes ago I felt another vampire's presence, presumably from the person holding onto me, and now I couldn't. Was Bobby wrong? Are my senses gone again?

I hesitantly took a few steps forward when I felt something grab my leg. I screamed again. "Norah!" The voice came from below me, and I immediately recognized it as Damon's.

I still couldn't see anything so I frantically started feeling around for him. "Damon, where are you? Oh my gosh, I didn't mean to shoot you. Are you okay? Where are you? Damon?"

His voice was calm but there was a slight tinge of pain laced in his words. "Norah, calm down. I'm right in front of you. Crawl towards me." I did as he said, figuring that I reached him when I felt two arms hastily pull me forward. I wrapped my arms around him as soon as I made contact with his body. He leaned his head on mine and wrapped his arms around me in response.

I slowly felt myself calming down as he held me tightly in his arms. "Are you hurt," he asked softly, his lips grazing the top of my head.

I shook my head, sliding my hand along his leg to get a better feel for how he was situated. As I moved closer towards his knee, I quickly retracted my hand when I heard him hiss in pain, bringing back to my attention that I just shot him moments before. "Damon, are you going to be okay? I didn't mean to shoot you, you should have told me you were behind me. I'm so sorry."

He guffawed. "Well, next time I come to save your ass, I'll have to remember to leave a message with your secretary to tell you I'm there."

I laughed but quickly sobered, remembering that we were still in the woods. 'Can you stand," I asked, getting up off of the ground.

I swear I could hear his eyes roll, "I'm not crippled, I can walk. Let's get out of the woods now before some other creature of the night decides to come out and play."

He got up with a grunt of pain, grabbed my hand, and started walking.


	27. Chapter 27

After aimlessly walking for about ten minutes, we still had no luck in finding Bobby, so we decided, well, Damon decided to head back to the house, and considering that his anger seemed to grow with every step, I wasn't about to argue. He was inconsolable; he'd start with one breath about how much of a moron Bobby was, and finish that same breath complaining about my lack of information shared in our phone calls. Nothing I said to defend myself was good enough, and I'm sure me tripping every five steps because of the darkness wasn't helping the situation either. So, partly to avoid any future missteps, and partly as a strategy to block out Damon's incessant complaining, I cautiously walked behind his tense figure until I was brought to a holt when he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"What's the matter," I asked tentatively. I felt his hand slip into mine, which was the last thing I expected him to do with his current rage.

"Bobby is close by. He's heading in the same the direction. Stay close to me." Damon increased the pace, making me glad that he kept a firm grip on me. I would not have made it without falling other wise. But, just as I was brought into a slight jog, I was pulled roughly to the ground. Quiet hisses of pain could be heard from next to me. My anger towards Damon instantly melted when I once again remembered the wooden bullet encased in his leg.

"Damon are you alright?" I felt around the ground for him, but all I could feel were shoes. He was already standing. He put a hand around my waist and hoisted me to my feet, keeping his hand there as we took off in the same direction at a much slower pace.

Minutes later, I saw the light of a flashlight in the distance. I felt Damon's grip tighten on me, making the cuts I received from falling sting as some of them broke open once more. I made out Bobby's figure holding the flashlight over his gun and saw him squint in our direction, immediately lowering his weapon when he saw me. He jogged over.

"Norah, what happened? Are you hurt, I heard gun shots, did you kill it?"

I stared at him blankly, unsure of where to start. Lucky for me, Damon knew exactly what he wanted to say.

"She's fine no thanks to you. What the hell were you thinking, letting her go off on her own in the dark with vampires who in case you didn't know can see in the dark and have a tendency to attack vulnerable humans when they're thirsty? I brought her here because I thought you could help her, not get her killed."

I wasn't sure whether to be touched that Damon was so concerned with my safety, or outraged that he didn't believe I could be a capable hunter. I opted not to voice either opinion, and quietly listen to the unfolding disaster.

Bobby looked like he wanted to kill Damon, and his tone did nothing to prove otherwise. "You asked me to help her, and I did. I trained her, I got her senses back, and I prepared her for what is out there so she doesn't have to rely on the likes of you to save her every time she's in trouble. Being a hunter isn't all flowers and sunshine; people get hurt and people die. It's called reality."

Bobby looked over at me with disdain as his eyes shifted down to where Damon's hand rested on my waist. "But I guess you came running once again. He helped you kill it didn't he, and now you can't sense him?"

I stared at him confused until the conversation I had with Bobby about his brother replayed in my mind. I placed my hand over Damon's, staring down at our now interlocked fingers, before looking up at his expectant gaze. Bobby was right; I couldn't sense him at all. I turned back away from Damon.

"Is it going to stay like this," I asked, wondering if it was too good to be true. "Is this how it is like with your brother?"

Bobby thought for a moment, his face still held anger, but his words came out much softer than before. "I don't know. Like I told you, I don't have too much information about this, but I can tell you that after almost fifty years I still cannot sense my brother in the slightest."

Damon looked between me and Bobby with an expression of anger and confusion. "Will someone tell me what the hell is going on, because if we can hurry this little eureka moment along, then maybe we can work on getting this damn bullet out of my leg!"

Damon removed his hand from mine, and brought it to his injured leg, which I could now see was still gushing out blood. The agony was clear on his face, causing my guilt to increase tenfold.

"Why don't we head inside and talk about this," I asked, trying to put a damper on both of their growing tempers.

Unsurprisingly, neither of them budged. They stood rigidly, eyes locked, Bobby with a strangely smug look on his face. He pointed down to Damon's leg.

"Why'd she shoot you; couldn't resist taking a bite out of her? Maybe you got jealous when the other vamp did it."In a blink of an eye, Damon was on top of Bobby, punching him over and over, each time with more force.

"Damon, stop it!" I ran over to the pair, hopelessly trying to pull Damon off of Bobby, but was only met with an elbow to the face as Damon pulled his arm back to punch once more. I staggered as my vision swam before me. I could blearily make out Bobby sticking his fingers into Damon's wound, and Damon pulling away in pain. He quickly recovered, but I did not see any further brawls.

I squeezed the heels of my hand to my tightly closed eyes as wave of pain made its way through my head. I cautiously ran a hand along my hairline, to find that a bump was rapidly forming on the right side of my head.

"Norah look at me."I felt Damon's hands remove my own from my head. I opened my eyes, blinking a couple of time to clear my vision. His expression was a mixture of pain and guilt, two things I never expected to see on Damon's face in my lifetime.

"I'm fine," I replied coldly. His hands moved from my face to the small of back, ushering me forward.

"Come on, let's go." I started walking with him, shrugging off his hand in annoyance, but stopped when I heard Bobby's voice.

"You're more of a moron than I first thought, going off with him like this." Bobby gestured his head towards Damon in a disgusted manner and then continued. "He'll cause you nothing but trouble. At least take this; you'll need something to protect yourself with." In his hand was the gun that I had been practising with for the past week, encased in its holster. I took it from him and placed it in my back pocket.

"Thank-you." Bobby nodded his head, before looking back down to the ground, a look of disappointment on his face that I couldn't help feel responsible for. But still, without another word I followed after Damon who was now half-way to the car. No matter how much Bobby and I may have bonded in the last week, I knew that there was nothing I could say to erase the disappointment. I didn't meet his expectations; I failed to do what he trained me to, and worst of all, I repeated his mistakes.

The second I closed the door, Damon sped off; neither of us speaking on the short ride to the motel that Damon had been staying at. I briefly wondered if it was even smart for Damon to be driving with a bullet in his leg, but kept that opinion to myself. I figured it wouldn't be a very good time to question his abilities.

As soon as he put the car in park, Damon got out in a huff and stormed off towards the building without even looking to see if I followed. I hurried after him, ignoring the slight spin the world seemed to have when I stood up. As soon as I entered the room, Damon slammed the door behind me and sat down on the bed.

"Get the knife out of my bag." His voice was cold, matching well with the sinister look in his eyes. I was startled by the lack of emotion in his voice.

I compliantly walked over to his bag, retrieved the knife that was lying on to top of it, and walked back over to Damon. He snatched it from my hands. "What are you going to do with it," I asked as he slipped off his trousers. His head snapped back up to me, the annoyed look on his face clearly showing that he did not appreciate the disturbance. I immediately shut my mouth. Something was different about him.

He took the knife and began cutting deeply into the open wound, making it wide. Blood started pouring out. He put the knife down then put his fingers into the open gash. He pulled his fingers out, and pinched between two fingers, was the wooden bullet.

I couldn't help but stare through the whole thing. There was so much blood and he didn't so much as flinch when not long ago he seemed to be in severe pain. As I stared at the blood- stained sheets around him, I couldn't help but shudder. It looked like a murder scene from some cop show. I was pulled out of my trance by Damon moving off of the bed and walking towards the mini-fridge. I moved out of his path and stood next to the aforementioned object as he came to it. I saw him pull out a bag of blood. Although I obviously knew that vampires drank blood, as he brought the bag to his lips, I couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed. I swallowed down the feeling and brought a hand to his arm.

"Are you going to be alright?" I immediately realised the mistake in my actions as I felt his hand grab my wrist, hungry, uncaring eyes staring down at me. I froze in my spot, my stomach dropping in fear. But, in an instant a contorted look formed on his face, as the veins around his eyes faded slightly. I tried pulling away, but he wouldn't budge.

"Damon, you're hurting me." I kept trying to pull my arm back, as his grip slowly loosened enough for me to get away. I took a couple of steps back as a torn look appeared on his face.

"Leave, get out of the room. I'll find you later, here," he threw me his wallet and I caught it with both hands. "Just leave."

He turned away from me and I did as he said, quickly walking out of the room. I hurried off towards the lobby and out the door, spotting a bench with a payphone next to it just a couple of feet away. I walked over and picked up the phone, collapsing into the bench.

I dialled Elena's number and waited. After two rings she picked up, "Hello?"

"Hey Elena, it's Norah." There was a sigh of relief on the other end.

"Norah, are you okay? Where are you? Where the hell have you been, me and the others have been worried sick? Jenna was ready to call the police until I told her that you were trying to work things out with your brothers. Did Damon hurt you? Where is he? Do you want me and Stefan to come get you?" I really should have known that she would flip out, and who can blame her. I waited for her to stop ranting before answering every question.

"Elena, I'm fine, I'm at a motel in Tennessee. I've been in Tennessee all week getting help from a hunter down here. I'm sorry I made you all worry, but I'm fine, really. Damon didn't hurt me, and he is back at the room. We are fine, and we should be heading back to Mystic Falls soon, tell Stefan that he doesn't have to worry either."

The line was silent and I took in a deep breath. "Elena, is Stefan there?"

"Yeah, why," she asked confusedly.

"Can I talk to him; I want to ask him something?" I sighed and waited for him to be put on the line.

"Norah, is everything okay? Did Damon do anything to you? Where are you, I'll come get you." He sounded genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine, well sort of; you don't have to come get me, but thank-you anyway. Damon is just…resting; I think he'll be fine."

"What do you mean resting, where is he? What happened?" He sounded confused, and rightfully so.

"It's kind of a really long story, but in short, I kind of shot him in the leg. He took the bullet out so I think he'll be fine, but now he's acting…strangely. That's what I wanted to ask you about." I was whispering at that point.

"What do you mean strangely? What happened?" He sounded worried. I really didn't know how to describe it, but I tried to for both of our sakes. "I don't know; he started acting weird. One minute he was in pain, and the next he was able to cut himself and pull a bullet out of his leg without even flinching. He lost a lot of blood, so I know he's thirsty, but when he grabbed my wrist, the look in his eye," I took in a shaky breath before continuing. "It was like he was going to suck the blood out of me and leave me for dead."

He sighed, "He turned off his emotions and feelings. He shouldn't have done that around you, he could have killed you. Vampires can turn their emotions and feelings on and off whenever they want. When they are hurt, it's harder to turn them back on. Don't go back to the room until he comes to get you and if he still doesn't seem right, find a phone and call me. Stay in a public area, no matter how little that would really help you."

I nodded my head, "Alright."

He said goodbye, but just as he was about to hang up I stopped him. "Wait, Stefan!"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Thank-you," I said gratefully.

"Any-time."

A/N: A big thanks to my beta ksnelders93 for this chapter. She helped write a lot of this and did an awesome job. Also, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far; it really means a lot to me.

P.S.-I put up a poll on my profile. Don't forget to vote!


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: I put up a poll on my profile concerning this story. Don't forget to vote and review!**

After nearly an hour of standing in front of the building, waiting for Damon to walk out the front door, I was growing anxious. Talking to Stefan did little to assuage my fears, and while I did not believe that Damon would ever intentionally hurt me, if he did not feel any emotions, was he really the same person that I could trust with my life? My mind kept jumping to different scenarios of what could happen; Damon not getting control back and attacking someone, or even worse, needing to use my newly acquired skills to defend myself against him. But, as time passed by and nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen, I began to grow impatient. Longing for a distraction, I found myself walking down the block, eventually winding up in a nearby Wal-Mart.

It surprised me how deserted the store was until I remembered that it was only around half-past six in the morning. The only other people there were a small number of night shift employees and two older gentlemen dressed in overalls who were looking at the gardening equipment when I walked in.

I shuffled around the entire perimeter of the store, not really paying any special attention to what I saw. My night's adventures were starting to catch up with me, and the exhaustion was becoming harder and harder to overcome, not to mention the incessant throbbing in my head. I could only imagine what a mess I must have looked like. I was covered in dirt, there was a large bump on the side of my head, my eyes were half closed, and I could barely pick up my feet when I walked. If I was more conscious, I might have noticed the strange stares that I was getting sooner. It gave me a sharp reminder of how different New York was from the rest of the country. No one would give me a second look up there.

Not wanting to draw more attention than necessary, I made my way over to the women's clothing section and picked out a pair of jeans and a plain long-sleeved shirt, and then proceeded over to the register.

The cashier on duty seemed almost as coherent as I was. He had his head resting next to his cash register with his eyes closed and blasting headphones in his ears. As I leaned forward to shake him awake, the smell of pot and booze overwhelmed my senses, which worked out fine for me in the end; he seemed to have no trouble believing that I was Damon Salvatore when I handed him the credit card and signed the receipt.

After changing in the bathroom, I headed back outside, where the sun had now risen, but did little to warm the cold air. I looked around me and sighed. What was I supposed to do now? I plopped myself down on the bench and placed the bag with my old clothes next to me. I didn't even notice how I slowly laid down, but soon after, I was fast asleep.

I awoke to a hand lightly pressed on the side of my face, fingertips brushing against the bruises on my head causing me to wince. My eyes fluttered open, revealing a sombre-looking Damon. He didn't say anything, but continued to stare down at me looking lost in thought until I made the motion to sit up. I grabbed my bag of clothes and placed them on my lap, fiddling with the handles in discomfort. Although Damon no longer looked like he wanted to kill me, he still seemed off.

"...Um, here's your wallet back." I held the wallet in my outstretched hand, and he took it, neither of us making eye contact. He stepped away from me as he shoved it into his pocket and looked out to the street.

"I bought clothes with your credit card, I hope you don't mind."

I started to stand, with every intention of walking towards Damon, but quickly sat back down as I was met with that familiar spinning sensation. I blinked a couple of times, preparing myself to try again, however before I got the chance, Damon was next to me once more, lifting me into his arms.

"It's alright, I can walk," I protested, fidgeting.

"Norah, shut up."

He walked back to the motel parking lot, not shifting me in the slightest and not speaking half a word the entire time. I remained as rigid as possible, trying not to move. He gently placed me in the passenger seat of his car and went into the lobby of the motel, presumably to pay the bill. I sat waiting with my head leaning against the window, not extremely anxious for his return.

I didn't turn to face him when I heard the driver's door open and close, and he didn't make any effort to start a conversation either; we stayed on our respective ends of the car in silence.

As an hour went by, I was once again finding it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. In fact, the ride down to Tennessee was probably the last time I got a good, restful sleep. Not having anything else to focus on, I slid my head down to the door and closed my eyes, hoping for the same results.

"Norah!" I was jolted awake by a rough push to the shoulder by Damon.

"What," I asked, annoyed at being woken up.

"You can't sleep; you probably have a concussion," he replied matter-of-factly, not sounding so pleased himself.

I scoffed. "Well you sure make it easy to stay awake with your thrilling conversations."

"What would you like me to say," he asked, sounding bothered.

"I don't know something."

"Wow thanks, that's a real conversation starter."

I clenched my fists on either side of me, trying to control my annoyance. "Why did you even bother to come this morning? Heck, how about when we get back home you just throw me to the coven; they'll get their hunter blood, my brothers will have me permanently out of their lives, Jenna will have one less mouth to feed, and hey, you won't have to worry about little old me anymore..."

I was cut short by Damon slamming his hand down on the steering wheel, causing me to jump in my seat. "Damn it Norah-May, will you shut the fuck up!"

I stared long and hard at him as he tightened his grip around the now-dented steering wheel. I wasn't sure if he was going to start screaming at me or tear apart the car.

I sighed. "All I'm saying is that maybe this would have turned out a bit better if you just left me at Bobby's. Stefan offered to pick me up from the motel; it would have given you time to get yourself together.

He whipped his head to the side to look at me, anger practically pouring out of his face. "You called Stefan," he asked in disbelief.

"When you were in the motel room," I replied softly looking out the window.

He turned his gaze back to the road. "Why?" His voice was calmer now, but still held that same furious tone; like he could explode at any moment.

"Because I was scared! You could have killed me," I yelled, abruptly turning back towards him.

He ran his right hand down his face. "You think I don't know that?"

"No, I think you do and that's what worried me. You knew what could have happened, but you did it anyway." I took a deep breath. "I'm not saying that I think you should have suffered through the pain, but a fair warning would have been nice. I didn't know what was happening until Stefan told me."

His grip on the steering wheel relaxed as he seemed to calm down. "Whether you want to believe it or not Norah, I wouldn't let anything happen to you; I wouldn't let you die."

He looked troubled, or worried, I'm not really sure which, or if there is even much of a difference between the two, but whatever it was it consumed me with guilt at what I said.

I sighed. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful; after all, I am the one who shot you in the first place. But, this is all really new to me, and well, I just...anyway, I'm sorry."

I dared a glance up at him as I finished my poorly-said apology. His jaw was slowly but surely unclenching, but the troubled look on his face refusing to recede. I slid over in the seat, placing my hand on his rigid shoulder as I got onto my knees; I felt him slowly relax.

I came closer to him, my lips lightly kissing the side of his mouth, his lips parting as I did so. The car slowed down as I wrapped my arms around him, sliding my hands across his abdomen under his shirt.

He turned his head towards me as I went to kiss him again, allowing me to kiss his lips this time. I placed my hands on the sides of his face as he took one hand off of the steering wheel and wrapped it around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

I quickly pulled away as I felt the car start to swerve. He looked back to the road just in time to avoid driving into a tree. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Tease," he accused, while picking up the speed once more. I leaned back into him, placing his hand in my lap as I held onto it.

"And apparently a very talented one," I jested.

He looked down at me smirking. "We'll see."


	29. Chapter 29

I spent the better part of the next half an hour rubbing furiously at my aching head trying to will away the pain. What was once just a dull throb surrounding the affected area had now radiated across my skull making me feel like my eyes might pop out at any moment from the pressure it created.

"If you rub any harder you might start feeling bone," Damon commented from next to me.

I guffawed, "Well maybe if some vampire didn't elbow me in the head."

"Maybe if some vampire hunter didn't shoot me in the leg."

I shook my head, "No, your immortal, that doesn't count."

Damon scoffed as he turned the car onto the highway.

Giving up on the rubbing, I laid down, placing my head in Damon's lap in order to block out some of the bright sun; he didn't seem to mind, for as soon as I was situated, his hand automatically made its way down to my hip. As he rubbed his hand back and forth, I couldn't help but close my eyes at my new-found comfort.

I felt Damon shift his position a little bit, and seconds later a freezing cold breeze was attacking my small body. I immediately got up and reached for Damon's jacket that I took off when we first entered the car. I looked over to see where the coldness was coming from.

"Damon what's wrong with you? Close the window!"

Damon was quick to catch me as I attempted to reach over him to roll up the window.

He took a deep breath in and smiled as he let it out. "Hm, nothing like that nice fresh air to wake you up in the morning."

I crossed my arms over my chest, rolling my eyes. "Oh you're hilarious," I said sarcastically.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat, and then continued on the road. The closer I got to being back in Mystic Falls, the more I dreaded it. I didn't even want to think about how much school work I had to make up; I might want to give myself over to the coven by the end.

We pulled up to the Salvatore house in a comfortable silence. Half-way through the drive Damon deemed it okay for me to sleep, so I spent a good portion of the trip drifting in and out of consciousness. Even though I didn't get any consistent rest, my head was still feeling a little bit better.

For the first time in weeks, I felt relaxed. Damon and I weren't arguing, I couldn't sense him, and I could sort of defend myself against the coven. But, the closer I got to the house, the more that serene feeling dissipated, only to be replaced by an uneasy wariness. When we stepped in the doorway it got even worse. I looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the impending danger.

Damon put his hand on my shoulder; I jumped at the contact.

He looked at me confusedly. "What's wrong?"

"Something is here…"

I stopped midsentence when I saw Stefan and Elena walking down the stairs, immediately realising the source of my uneasiness. I may not have any problems with Damon, but I could still sense Stefan.

"What?" I turned back to Damon, who had a slightly worried look on his face.

I shook my head. "Never mind."

I looked back away from him, unable to keep my eyes away from Stefan. I didn't want this; Stefan was not the enemy. Following my gaze, it looked as if Damon was starting to see the source of my discomfort as well.

"Stefan, get out of here. Go catch a rabbit or something."

I immediately protested. "No, it's fine; it's his house."

Stefan looked to Damon, a beyond confused expression on his face, but as the two brothers continued to stare at each other, Stefan seemed to realise the truth of the situation.

"Damon, why don't you come as well," Stefan said, not breaking the eye contact.

Damon nodded in agreement and turned to me. "Why don't you stay the night," he asked walking up to me so our bodies were just touching.

"Alright."

He leaned down, kissed me, and then proceeded to follow Stefan out the door, leaving Elena and me alone in the house.

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding as Stefan walked further away.

"What was that about," Elena asked from behind me with a slight edge to her voice.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Why don't we go upstairs? I am in desperate need for a shower, and when I get out I will tell you everything."

Elena rolled her eyes, but followed me none the less. She went into Stefan's room and me into Damon's.

As soon as I shut the door to the bathroom in Damon's room, I immediately slid to the floor, cradling my head in my hands. When I was getting my senses back, all I thought about was how it would affect my relationship with Damon, I didn't think about how much of an affect it would have on my life. Both Elena and Jeremy were dating vampires that were at the house for nearly twenty-four hours a day; not to mention also seeing them at school. It's not like I could ask them to break off their relationships, but if I continued to live at the Gilbert house I would be miserable.

I got up off of the floor, stretching out my sore limbs and walked over to the mirror to undress. When looking at all of the nasty scars and bruises that I had acquired, it was hard to believe that just less than four months ago I knew nothing about this world. I traced one particularly angry scar that started at my left collar bone, went down across my right nipple and wrapped around my ribcage. I found it even more striking that I couldn't remember if I got it when I was attacked by the coven the first or second time around.

Words couldn't describe how fantastic the steaming hot water felt as it ran down my back. The hottest the water got at Bobby's was lukewarm, and that only lasted for a couple of minutes. I was reluctant to get out of the shower, but remembered that Elena was waiting for me.

Not wanting to put back on my clothes, I searched through Damon's draws, looking for something that I could wear. After looking high and low, I finally found a dresser full of t-shirts next to his bed, and pulled out the first one that I found. But as I was about to close the draw, something caught my eye.

It was a very old picture, black and white with worn edges. The girl was extremely beautiful despite the frown on her face, dressed in old-fashioned clothing with a plunging neckline and a beautiful necklace that fell perfectly in place. The strangest part however, was that she looked exactly like Elena. Was it Elena?

I dropped the picture back into the draw as if it were on fire and slammed it shut. I took a step back and slid Damon's shirt over my naked body, trying not to think about what I had just found. I decided right away that I would not bring it up to Damon. What he kept in his room was his business; it would only seem like I was snooping. But, I would be lying if I said that it didn't gnaw at me for the rest of the night.

I walked into Stefan's room, not quite prepared for an angry Elena. She was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, with a sour look on her face.

"Hey, what's up," I said looking anywhere but her.

Elena did not look impressed. "I'll tell you what's up; you were gone for a week without telling anyone where you were. I've had to lie to everyone, not that I could tell them the truth, because I didn't know it myself. I had to tell my aunt that you were working things out with your brothers, I had to tell the school that you had mono, and I had to tell Bonnie and Caroline that you went on a trip with your family!"

I was really tempted to just run out of the room, but held my ground anyway. "It's not like I went by myself, I was with Damon," I defended.

She scoffed. "That's exactly what worried me; I had no idea what he was doing to you."

This time I glared. "Elena, he wouldn't hurt me just as much as Stefan wouldn't hurt you. If anything this trip proved that I was the danger in the relationship. Didn't you hear that I shot him?"

A slight smile formed on her face as she nodded her head. "Yeah," she said, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

I smiled back. "It wasn't on purpose."

"I know, but I still get a certain satisfaction out of it."

I slapped her arm. "You're horrible."

We spent the rest of the night talking about what happened around town while I was gone, and I told her bits and pieces about what I did while I was away. It wasn't until around nine-thirty that Damon walked through the door.

"Elena, Stefan is waiting in the car for you."

I walked Elena out and waved as the two of them drove away.

I shut the front door, and when I turned around, Damon was leaning against the wall with his arms across his chest and a smirk on his face. His eyes were drifting up and down my body.

"My clothes look good on you." His smirk got wider.

I rolled my eyes then walked past him and headed for his room. I was absolutely exhausted. I was about to start up the stairs when I was suddenly whisked off my feet. Before I knew what was even going on, I was lying on the bed in Damon's room, and Damon was kissing me.

Adrenaline began pumping through my body, washing away any traces of tiredness. I wrapped my arms around his waist, snaking my hands under his shirt. While he began kissing and softly biting my neck, I took the opportunity to explore his body with my hands, feeling every muscle along his stomach and back.

He hit a soft spot right under my ear that caused me to moan. I felt sharp teeth graze my skin as he moved down to my neck, and despite knowing that I wasn't in any danger, my body instinctively tensed. I knew he noticed as well when he rolled off of me, putting an end to the heated moment.

When I looked over he was lying on his back, his face had changed, his fangs were out, and his arms were spread out above his head. I didn't speak; I just curled up against him, using his left arm as a pillow. We didn't say anything, just laid in silence, waiting for our breathing and his face to go back to normal. The silence was beginning to make me nervous. I was waiting for him to tell me how much of a mood killer I was. I was not expecting what came out of his mouth next.

He broke the silence, "I think you should move in." He stopped and when I didn't say anything he went on, "I can keep a better an eye on you here, and after everything that's happened in the past weeks, I don't think you're safe out of my sight."

I was speechless. Damon just asked me to move in with him. Part of me wanted to tell him that I could take care of myself, but another part of me was screaming to say yes.

"What about Stefan," I asked. "I don't want to kick him out of his own house, and I can't live with him."

"I already talked to him. He stays at Elena's most of the time anyway; it shouldn't be a problem."

"Then I guess it would work out," I started. "Elena told her aunt that I was working things out with my brothers anyway. I could just tell her that I'm moving back in with them."

Damon kissed the top of my head as I moved closer to him, and I fell asleep in his arms. For the first night in weeks, I slept without a single nightmare invading my dreams.


	30. Chapter 30

I spent that Friday after we got back moving all of my stuff from Elena's house to Damon's. Elena was out with Stefan, and it would look suspicious if Damon helped me, so Jeremy and Jenna aided me in moving my stuff into Stefan's car {Damon wouldn't let me drive his; something about only him being able to handle it. I chalked it up to boys and there cars.}.

Everything couldn't be packed quick enough. Jenna kept saying to me over and over how happy she was for me that my brothers and I were getting along again. I felt so guilty by the end of the day that I was tempted to just blurt out that I was moving in with Damon; but that obviously wouldn't go over very well.

While I never imagined it to be horrible, I came to realise during the weekend how much I really enjoyed living with Damon. Sure we had our moments when he was mad at me after he found out I still carried the gun that Bobby gave me, or when I was mad at him for acting like I was helpless, but over all I went to bed happy Sunday night.

I was in absolutely no rush to get up the next morning. I was perfectly content with lying in Damon's bed, wrapped in his arms, and forgetting about going to school after missing an entire week's worth of work. I mean really, winter break was next week anyway; did it really pay for me to go back now? But, like always, my conscious, which sounds eerily like Elena, convinced me to get up and get ready. Miraculously, I made it out of the room without waking Damon.

Trying to remain as quiet as possible, because while Elena was the angel on my shoulder Damon was most definitely the devil who would try and convince me to stay home, I tip-toed down the hallway to Stefan's room where Elena told me that she kept some of her clothes if I needed them. The shirt I found fit perfectly, but the skinny jeans that I found needed to be rolled up a few times or five.

I crept downstairs into the kitchen, grabbed a piece of bread, slopped on a bit of butter, and walked to the door. With the way things were going, I figured I might have even been lucky enough to take the car without him noticing, but my luck ran out; the second my fingers touched the car keys, I felt his hands on my hips. He rested his head on my shoulder as he began to kiss my neck and I leaned back into him.

"Where are you going with those," he said in-between kisses, pointing to the keys in my hand.

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. "Just school."

He put his hand over mine, and slowly slid the keys out of my hands. "I'll drive."

I followed behind in a huff. "How can you possibly not trust me with your car? You have not even seen me drive before!"

"Sure I have, remember way back when; when you sped away from me at that rest stop. I couldn't leave my car in the hands of someone who drives that irresponsibly."

I looked at him flabbergasted. "I thought you were some creep who wanted to rape or kill us or something."

All I got in response was a smirk as he climbed into the driver's seat. I opened the passenger door and got in, slamming the door behind me to show my frustration.

"You were awake the whole time weren't you? You just wanted to make a point that I could not drive your car."

He looked sideways at me, a mischievous glint in his eye. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked sideways at him, unable to keep a small smile from forming on my lips.

As we pulled up to the school parking lot, I gave Damon a quick peck on the lips before exiting the car. He promised to be there later to pick me up, but when I turned around to face a clearly unhappy Caroline, I wished it was sooner.

"What's the matter," I asked more scared at how annoyed she looked than actually concerned about what caused it. She all but glared at me.

"Damon Salvatore is not the type of guy that you should be hanging around," she said, pursing her lips at the end.

I raised my eyebrows, surprised that that was what she was upset about. "What are you talking about?"

She let out a bitter laugh. "Don't act all innocent, I was right here when you got out of his car."

She was seriously starting to annoy me. "I'm not denying anything; I did just get out of Damon's car. What I am having trouble with is why you have a problem with it."

It was her turn to be shocked. I was never one to have an attitude, and truthfully I didn't know why I was so angry. Damon of all people did not need someone to defend him.

When Caroline started to speak again she took a much calmer approach. She put a hand on my arm in what I'm sure she though to be a reassuring gesture.

"I'm just concerned about you. Damon has done some pretty nasty things in the past." Her voice sounded so fake sometimes; there were moments where I really had to concentrate on not slapping her, and this was definitely one of them.

Despite my true thoughts, I put on my best appreciative smile, desperately wanting to end the conversation and get away from her. "Thank-you for your concern; I'll keep what you said in mind."

Judging by the sour look on her face, she wasn't very satisfied with my answer, but it gave me the perfect opportunity to bolt and I took it.

Elena and Bonnie looked mildly confused as I came speed-walking into the building, but they made no mention of it. I was immediately included in a conversation about dress shopping, but I wasn't really listening enough to get why they needed the dresses.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Bonnie. "You're going Norah, aren't you?"

I blinked a couple of times in order to clear my head, and looked up. "I'm sorry, what."

"To Tyler's party," Bonnie responded, clearly surprised that I didn't know.

"Oh, well I don't even know Tyler; I wasn't invited."

Bonnie rolled her eyes, but kept a smile on her face. "You don't need to get invited, practically everyone in town goes. Almost everything around here is planned by Mrs. Lockwood, even school functions. You have to go.

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, trying to think of a reason why I couldn't go, but wasn't quick enough.

"So I guess we'll see you there!"

Before I could spurt out any of the poor excuses that I had managed to come up with in my head, Bonnie was already gone. Elena gave me a sad smile.

"Well, you could always drag Damon along. You snap and he jumps these days," she said with a smirk on her face.

I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud at her statement. "Damon does whatever Damon wants. Trust me, I hold no leverage."

Elena's eyebrows raised half-way up her forehead. "Norah, you can't be that oblivious. He just spent a week of his life sitting in a motel room in Tennessee doing nothing, so you could get your senses back and be safer. He asked you to live with him so he could protect you. I'll admit, Damon is a selfish bastard at times but lately, not so much."

I immediately went to deny it, but as I opened my mouth to protest, my stomach suddenly dropped. I looked around in alarm, now able to recognize this uncomfortable feeling. My hand instinctively went for my gun that I had tucked under my shirt, but as I saw that Stefan was the vampire walking towards us, I dropped my hand back to my side.

"I'll see you later Elena," I said, backing away from her.

"I'll call you when we decide to go shopping." As soon as she finished her sentence, she walked over to Stefan, and I walked to my first class of the day.

Each class was met with loads and loads of homework and school work that I missed. It was as if teachers chose that week to cover half of the year's material. Needless to say that took up most of my time the entire week, much to Damon's chagrin.

Friday night, I got the call from Elena that they were going to go to the mall, but I declined. I had semi-nice outfits that I could wear, and it's not like I had any spare change to use anyway. I hung up the phone and sat back in Damon's lap.

"What did little miss goody-two shoes want," Damon asked, his lips resting on the top of my head.

"She wanted to know if I wanted to go shopping for Tyler's party," I responded, absentmindedly rubbing my thumb over Damon's hand that he had resting on my outer thigh.

We sat quietly for a little longer, watching some television show that I never heard of before. I wasn't really sure what was going on. My mind kept going back to what Elena said earlier in the week; that Damon would do anything that I asked him. While I knew she didn't literally mean everything, the fact that she thought that I had any influence on him really got me thinking.

Like, I originally thought that Damon wanted me to get my senses back so he didn't have to rescue me all the time {not that that really worked out that way anyway}, but Elena claims that he wants me to be safer, to be able to protect me better. It made me wonder; how far did Damon's feelings run for me.

"What are you thinking about," Damon asked, moving his lips to right above my ear.

I pulled away and looked at him, meeting his eyes. "Will you go to Tyler's party with me?"

He appeared to be thinking it over for a couple of seconds, then shrugged his shoulders. "Sure."

I leaned back against him in confusion. Was there some truth to what Elena was saying?


	31. Chapter 31

I arrived at the party just over an hour late. Damon and I got a little...sidetracked on the way over. It was my fault really; or at least that was what Damon claimed. Apparently, I shouldn't "start something that I am not prepared to finish". So I suppose when an agitated Elena came walking up to us, fists clenched at her sides, I deserved her little outburst, but I did not however think that I deserved it in front of at least thirty other party-goers.

"You know I am getting really tired of having to cover for you. And, I am getting even more fed up with having to cover for you because you are off gallivanting with him!" She started off whispering, but it steadily grew to a hushed yell.

The people around us ceased their conversations and the room fell silent. My eyes shifted around the room, taking notice of everyone's watchful gazes; Damon stood beside me, averting his eyes in another direction.

"Well this is awkward," he declared. We both ignored him.

I took a step closer to Elena and whispered into her ear. "Maybe we should take this outside."

She glared at me for a couple of seconds before storming out the door. I followed behind her, sheepishly smiling at the people that I passed.

"What was that for," I asked after I shut the door behind me, now raising my own voice.

Elena walked up to the railing on the porch and looked out into the night. She gently ran her fingers along the banister, appearing to calm down. She turned back towards me looking very frustrated.

"Your brothers are here, well some of them. And once again I had to lie to Aunt Jenna about it."

I stood there dumbstruck, not even considering that possibility when I agreed to come. I felt quite stupid not realising it when Bonnie told me that everyone in town goes. "Which ones?"

Elena shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't really know your brothers; I don't know who is who."

I started pacing, desperately trying to think of a way to deal with the situation. Do I confront them; do I wait for them to come for me; do I run for it?

"What did you tell your aunt," I asked, running my fingers through my hair.

"That you were babysitting Ashley and Sarah, but you might show up later."

She began to walk back into the house, but I caught her by her arm.

"Elena, I'm sorry I'm making you lie so much. You must know that that is not my intention."

She nodded her head. "I know."

I heard the door close behind her as she went back inside.

I was outside for a half an hour before I started to hear footsteps, followed by the presence of a vampire. They were about twenty feet away and they were getting closer. I looked around, but it was too dark to make anything out. I pulled out my gun and cocked it.

"I know you're there. Stop being a coward and show yourself."

I saw movement from the corner of my eye and turned, still aiming my gun. Who else but Stefan popped out of the shadows?

"Whoa there, I surrender," he jested

I lowered my gun, smiling as he walked closer.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could sense who the vampire was, then maybe I wouldn't have to reach for my gun every time you came near me. Maybe you wouldn't be kicked out of your own house, which I am also sorry for by the way; it was Damon's idea, I promise. I mean, why I wouldn't even think that it was you coming; I knew you were at the party..."

I stopped in my tracks when Stefan began to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

His laughter died down. "Nothing, I'm sorry, it's just that you really over think things don't you?"

I let out a chuckle as well. "Yeah, I suppose I do. Did Elena send you out here?"

He shook his head. "No, but there are a couple of people in there asking around for you."

"Who?"

"Damon, Caroline, your brothers. Well, I don't know if Damon is really looking for you, but he did ask me if my girlfriend killed you when she came in the house without you."

I stepped away from the railing.

"I have to talk to them, don't I?"

Stefan shook his head, realising the shift in conversation back to my brothers. "No, I'm sure Damon would be more than happy to sneak you out of here, he hates these things, but if you're asking my opinion, I think that you should."

I sighed. "I know."

"Well I'm probably making you feel very uncomfortable by now with your senses and all, so I'll leave you be. One of your brothers is on the back porch if you decide to talk to them. I'll tell Damon you're still alive."

I smiled at him once again. "His faith in my ability to keep myself alive is astounding. Am I blushing?"

He laughed as he backed away. "See you around Norah."

"Yeah, see ya."

As much as I wanted to grab Damon and leave, I knew that it really wasn't an option. We lived in the same, ridiculously small town, and there are seven of them and one of me. I am bound to run into them again sooner or later. At least here it is on my own terms.

I slowly made my way around back, but as soon as the person leaning on the back railing came into view, I halted my steps. I couldn't help a smile when I saw that Sean was in the same exact position that I was just in moments before. I wondered if he had the same thoughts that I did. I missed him, I really did. So many things have changed in my life since I last saw him. I changed so much since I last saw him, and he knew nothing about it. It was like we were strangers now.

I started to get nervous. What would I say? Was he looking for me to talk to me or reprimand me? No, I knew the answer to that question. Sean wouldn't yell at me without hearing me out. However, all of my "battle strategies" were thrown out the window when he started to speak.

"Do you remember Mystic Falls?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but he continued to talk.

"I don't imagine you do; Owen says he remembers going to kindergarten, and Sawyer and I remember some things too, but Alistair really has the most. He grew up here. I think that it's sort of haunting for him. He's living in the same house that he used to, living in the room with Amy that Mom and Dad used to have. Every time he goes into the woods, it's the same woods that he found our parents' dead bodies in." He had a distant look on his face, like he wasn't really talking to me.

"Um, I..." I wasn't really sure what to say. My brothers shared next to nothing with me about my parents for my entire life, and all of a sudden here is Sean talking about Alistair discovering their corpses.

He turned around and looked at me as if he were expecting me to come up with a better answer.

"Why are you telling me this," I asked, walking towards him.

'Because I don't think you understand everything Alistair went through, everything he's done for us."

I scoffed. "Why in the world would I understand? My whole life you all have told me nothing Sean, nothing. I didn't even know that this was where we lived until I went to see the graves."

He quickly looked up at me. "How did you even know where they were? Who took you?"

My eyes widened for a split second when I realised the information that I had just released. "That's not important right now," I responded hastily.

"Whatever, just think about what I am telling you. Mom and Dad had Alistair when they were teenagers, and then years later they have four more children. After all those years of our parents teaching him how to hunt and taking him with them, now he has to stay home and watch us. Then, when he is nineteen, after finding his parents' mutilated bodies, he is suddenly a father to four children under the age of ten. Wouldn't you make a mistake now and then if that was you?"

"I knew all of that already, and of course I would. But that doesn't change anything."

He rolled his eyes at me. "You're acting like a child."

"No, I'm not; you are just leaving out one very important piece of information. Why does he hate _me_? Why am I different from the rest of you?"

His face softened. "Why don't you come over tomorrow night and have dinner with us?"

"If I come, will you tell me the rest of what happened?"

He stopped a moment appearing to consider my question.

"Yes, I will."

"Alright."

"But," he continued. "You have to tell us a few things too. We've heard some stuff around town that we'd like to hear about."

I gulped. I wanted to ask him what kind of things, but I was too afraid of the answer. I didn't even want to consider how a conversation about my relationship with Damon would pan out.

"Fine, I'll be there around seven."

"See you then."

I went inside immediately after and found Damon talking to Mrs. Lockwood. She was giggling, and I could only imagine what sort of things he was saying to flatter her.

I grabbed his arm causing him to look down at me. His smile disappeared when he saw the distressed look on my face.

"Can we go home, please?" I surprised myself when I referred to the Salvatore house as home, but it was certainly the truth.

Damon said his goodbyes to Mrs. Lockwood and rapped an arm around me. "Let's go."

I leaned into him, enjoying the sense of security that his arms offered, and we walked out the door.


	32. Chapter 32

Damon didn't ask any questions on the ride home, and I didn't make any notion to tell him anything either. I kept replaying my conversation with Sean over and over again in my head. There were so many things that I regretted not asking him. Like, who was going to be there tomorrow, does anybody else even want to see me, and most importantly, what did he hear about me around town?

Damon's eyes started shifting towards me every couple of seconds, making me wonder if perhaps my facial expressions were portraying more than I thought. It seemed that curiosity finally got the better of him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened back there?"

We were parked in front of the house, but neither one of us made any motion to get out.

"Did you know that my brothers would be there," I asked, shifting my body so that I was facing Damon.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I may have heard that around town."

I couldn't be mad that he didn't tell me, because in all honesty I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the situation. But, I still wanted to know his thoughts on the subject. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He shrugged his shoulders again, "I really didn't put much thought into it. And, I really didn't find it that important."

"What are you talking about; of course it is important, they are my brothers," I answered defensively.

"Norah, if you were all so important to each other you would be living with them and not me."

I turned away from him and crossed my arms over my chest, staring forward. "Alistair doesn't speak for my entire family."

He rolled his eyes. "You have to be kidding me, of course he does. You've been gone for what, a month and a half, two months; and tell me how many of them have tried to talk to you? You could have died and they wouldn't have even known..."

"Alright, I get it!"

Damon stopped talking immediately, looking shocked at my outburst. He sighed, reaching out to turn my face towards him again.

"All I am saying is that you have been getting on fine without them so far; you don't need them in your life. Whatever they said to you just forget about it."

I found my anger slowly dissipating as he finished his statement, but I couldn't bring myself to heed his advice. I shook my head. "No."

Damon pulled his hand away from me, sighing as he turned and looked out the window.

"Norah look around; where are you?"

I remained silent.

"Just think about that."

I stepped out of the car, desperate for some air in this very overwhelming situation. I turned back around to Damon who was sitting in the car with the passenger door open. "I'll see you later."

I started walking the opposite way of the house, not entirely sure of my destination, but with the intent of getting as far away as possible. I didn't need the added stress of a relationship talk with Damon.

"Where are you going," Damon asked in an almost defeated tone.

"I'll be back later," I responded without stopping. I heard a loud bang.

"You know what fine, just go. Get into trouble like you normally do. Hey, maybe your brothers will come and save you!" I stopped walking, sharply turning around to face him. "Why do you have to be like that? It's like whenever I'm upset about something it ends in me being angry with you!"

His face suddenly hardened. "Just go inside."

He got back into the car, slamming the door and speeding away in another direction. I found myself listening to him and heading towards the house. I flicked on the lights as I entered the doorway, nearly jumping out of my skin when I looked up.

"Oh hey Elena, when did you and Stefan get back," I asked taking note of the presence of a vampire.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, not too long ago." She got up from her spot on the couch and walked towards me.

"Where's Damon?" She leaned up against the wall as I took off my shoes and hung up my jacket, looking past me and out the door.

"I don't know; he just stormed off," I replied, walking past her and plopping down on a chair in the living room.

She smiled. "Well that's too bad."

I looked up at her confused. "Elena, are you alright?"

She quickly looked up at me, an alarmed expression on her face that quickly vanished. "Of course I am; why do you ask?"

I looked at her closely, trying to figure out what seemed so different about her. "I don't know, something just seems...off about you."

I got up and walked into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat having not eaten since breakfast. "Elena I'm going to make eggs; do you want anything?" I dropped the frying pan when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Elena what..." I never got to finish my sentence as I was thrown across the room. I yelled out as I made contact with the wall.

"Elena, what are you doing," I screamed. She was next to me in less than I second, pinning me to the ground as fangs protruded from her mouth.

"Elena?" I yelled out again when her teeth met my skin, tearing it open. I felt the blood drip down my shoulder.

"Scream all you want," she started as she lowered her lips to my ears. "No one's coming to save you."

I screamed, thrashing on the ground. She held me down tighter. My gun was in my purse across the room, I couldn't get to it. I was going to die.

"You know, you have sparked the interest of a lot of important people around here. And then I heard the name Damon Salvatore and I just had to come see for myself. The big bad vampire whipped by the little hunter girl. It's like a real-life Twilight story." I gasped for air as she wrapped her hands around my neck.

She leaned down and bit me again. My eyelids started to get heavier the more blood she took from me, the more air she deprived me of. The familiar darkness began to creep around the edges of my vision. And, within seconds it swept me away.

I woke up to someone's voice, but I could only make out bits and pieces of it. They were talking about a girl, and something was wrong with her. The voice was vaguely familiar. I blinked open my eyes, immediately shielding the light as I did so. The pain in my head quickly reminded me of what happened.

"Norah?"

I removed my hands from my eyes. "Mr. Saltzman?"

"Good, you're awake. I tried to call Damon but I couldn't get a hold of him; Stefan is on his way."

He put a hand behind my back and eased me into a sitting position. "What happened to you?"

I winced as his hand found a tender spot on the back of my neck. "Oh the usual; Damon and I fight, he leaves, and then I'm attacked by a vampire." I paused. "Oh my gosh, Elena!"

Mr. Saltzman sat up straighter, clearly alarmed by my exclamation. "What, did something happen to Elena; was she here too; did they take her?"

I shook my head after each of his questions. "No, she attacked me."

His face turned serious as he looked me over. "I think we should wait until Stefan gets here. I have a strong feeling about who was here and I can guarantee you that it wasn't Elena. He'll have a better idea."

I laid back down on the floor as I started to get dizzy. I put my hands over my eyes again.

"Are you alright," he asked with a concerned tone.

"Hmhm," I responded. "They just seem to always aim for my head."

As the attack passed I lowered my hands once more. He was wearing a sad smile.

"How do you know about all of this anyway," I asked curiously.

"It's a long story."

He didn't seem to want to talk about, so I didn't press any further.

Maybe ten minutes later, and Stefan was running through the door, Elena in tow.

"What happened," Elena asked in a panic.

I had to resist the urge to get up and run at the sight of her.

"It was Katherine," Mr. Saltzman answered, pulling my gaze away from Elena. A chill went down my spine as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

Stefan looked alarmed, which made me alarmed in return. Stefan was always calm. "Did she say anything to you," he asked.

I opened my mouth to tell him, but decided it would be better not to. No one needed to know what Katherine said. Most importantly it didn't need to get back to Damon.

"No she didn't."

With a troubled look, Stefan got up off the floor and walked away, quickly dialling numbers into his cell phone. He disappeared behind a door as he held the phone up to his ear.

"Who is he calling," I asked Elena.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Gathering up all of my strength, I slowly pushed myself off of the ground. I looked to Mr. Saltzman. "Can you give me a hand?"

He held out his hand. "Sure"

He pulled me up from the floor, and sat down on the nearest thing to me, the couch. Stefan walked back into the room.

"I talked to Anna; she hasn't heard anything..."

We all turned when we heard the door open and close. Much to my surprise especially, Damon strides into the living room. He looks at each of us separately.

"What's going on?"

**A/N: Sorry about the delay everybody. My beta and I have both been really busy with school, but I'll try to post as frequently as I can. Thank-you for continuing to read! **


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